Five die in Indian school stampede
Five female students died and another 31 were injured as hundreds of pupils jammed into a narrow school staircase panicked and set off a stampede, a New Delhi hospital official said.
Five of the injured were in critical condition, said O P Kalra, medical superintendent of the Guru Tegh Bahadur Hospital, where the injured students were taken.
The stampede occurred early in the school day as students arrived for an exam, Kalra told reporters.
The Press Trust of India news agency said the stampede was set off by rumours about an electrical short-circuit in the government-run school. The students were from age eight to 16, police said.
Parents gathered outside the school after the incident, wailing in anguish.
A few threw rocks at the building, news reports said.
A government investigation has been ordered into the stampede, said Sheila Dikshit, New Delhi's top official.