BBC News Online: World: South Asia

India fetes elephant god

Ganesh procession approaches the sea at Madras

In the southern port city of Madras, it ended with hundreds of idols of Lord Ganesh being lowered into the sea.

The festival was marked all over India with politicians publicly offering up prayers to the god who is believed to "bring success" and "remove obstacles".

But in the state of Assam the celebrations were marred on the first day by tragedy.

Two elephants were being herded across a bridge over the river Brahmaputra in Guwahati, the state capital, in the early hours of the morning when a speeding bus ran into them.

The driver of the bus, which had come from the state of Nagaland, was killed along with the two animals.

Reports from the scene said that the elephants' two Mahouts, or trainers, were thrown into the river.