Saturday, January 29 2005 09:36 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Wai: The toll in the January 25 stampede at the Mandhardevi Temple at Wai taluka in Maharashtra's Satara district has risen to 281 from 258, a senior official said.

While body of a 15-year-old girl was found in the vicinity of the temple yesterday (Jan 28, 2005), the other 22 were of those victims whose bodies were taken from the accident spot by their relatives without the knowledge of the police and cremated at their respective native districts including Beed and Pune, Wai Sub-Divisional Magistrate B S Parhad said last evening.

Some people, who claim to have taken the bodies of their relatives from the spot on their own, have approached the police stations in their respective areas saying that the deceased whom they had cremated in the last two to three days were victims of the January 25 stampede, Parhad added.

He informed that the girl's body has been sent to Pune's Sasoon Hospital after post-mortem and is yet to be identified.

Meanwhile, of the 11 bodies sent to Sasoon Hospital from Wai's Mission Hospital, nine have been handed over to their claimants after identification.