Stampede at Dalai Lama ceremony

Thousands of people have been caught up in a stampede at a rare ceremony held by the exiled Tibetan spititual leader, the Dalai Lama, in the Indian hill state of Himachal Pradesh.

One old man was killed and a pregnant woman injured.

The Dalai Lama was performing the Kaal Chakra Mandala - an initiation ceremony during which monks use coloured powders to draw the wheel, or circle of life, on a table.

Devotees believe that whoever sees this wheel first is doubly blessed and the stampede occurred when monks of the Key Gompa Buddhist monastery opened its gates and the crowds surged forward.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service