Stampede kills 24 at religious gathering

A stampede at a religious gathering in northern India killed at least 24 people as thousands of devotees of a controversial guru tried to cross a bridge at once, police said. The followers of Jai Gurudev, a leader of a local religious sect, had gathered on the outskirts of Varanasi, a Hindu holy town in Uttar Pradesh state, when the deadly stampede broke out. A spokesperson of the religious sect said the stampede occurred after a rumour spread that the narrow bridge had collapsed.