The people injured in the Deoghar stampede being taken to hospital.
The Jharkhand government has suspended top officials of Deoghar district within 12 hours of a stampede near a temple in Deoghar town, in which at least 11 people died and 20 were injured. The town had witnessed similar incidents in the past.
In a hurriedly convened press conference in Ranchi, state Home Secretary NN Pandey said Deoghar's Deputy Commissioner Ameet Kumar, in-charge of administration, Superintendent of Police P Murugan and the Civil Surgeon Shree Kamad were suspended for dereliction of duty.
The stampede took place early this morning close to a temple of Goddess Durga, where thousands had lined up for a ritual. Devotees flock to the area every year in August to offer water from the river Ganga to Lord Shiva at the town's famous Baidyanath temple.
The town sees the maximum crowds on Monday. Last week, around one lakh people had converged at the temple and the district administration had held a review meeting of arrangements on Sunday.
The police said a crowd started building up at 2 am and snaked through lanes near the temple. Within two hours, it had swelled to over one lakh.
Officials at the spot tried to organise the crowd, but the surge turned chaotic when at 5 am, people heard the temple gates were finally opening and started jumping the queue.
The police reportedly used batons to try and control the mass but failed.
Those who had fallen asleep in the snaking queue got trampled as others pushed towards the doors, said SN Pradhan, the state's Additional Director General of police.
"Many tried to rush to the head of the queue which led to chaos and as some of them fell, the devotees got trampled," Mr Pradhan said.
Chief Minister Raghubar Das has ordered an inquiry and announced compensation. Denying that police action exacerbated the situation, he told NDTV, "There was no lathi-charge. I haven't heard of any such thing".