At least 42 people, mostly women, were killed and more than 50 injured Sunday in a stampede for food coupons at a flood relief camp in the southern Indian city of Chennai, officials said.

More than 3,000 people affected by floods had gathered at a government school in the Tamil Nadu state capital to collect food coupons early yesterday, an official said.

A police official said 45 people were killed and around 50 injured. The government, however, put the death toll at 42.

"Forty two people have died in this tragic incident," Tamil Nadu state Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa said.

"I spoke to survivors and I asked them what they were doing so early in the morning since the relief coupons were to be distributed from 7:00 AM and they said they were told to go early because very few coupons were left," she said.

Jayalalithaa said the state would pay the victims' families 100,000 rupees (US$2,212) in compensation and ordered a judicial enquiry into the incident.

"This is a very tragic incident and I express my condolences."

Witnesses said there was a scramble to enter the school three hours before the scheduled opening of coupon counters when the crowd mistook a group of approaching policemen for relief workers.

"Suddenly it started raining heavily and there was a mad scramble to get in. As the lock on the main door snapped, those in the front got crushed by the jostling crowd behind them," said witness Dhanalakshmi, who uses only one name.

Most of the victims were women, administration officials said, adding that a separate police investigation was also ordered into the tragedy. Heavy rain delayed the rescue work.

"It was raining so heavily that it was difficult to make out who was dead and who was injured," a rescuer said from the site, which was littered with empty bags people had brought in the hope of collecting relief material.

Two of the city's main hospitals, Government and Royapettah, where the injured were taken, were swamped by police and angry relatives.

Women wailed in the corridor of the Government General Hospital while policemen taking the dead to the morgue looked shaken.

At the site of the stampede one person recounted a lucky escape.

"I came here to get coupons for my family as my daughter had just given birth to a baby. I was lucky that I got delayed because of the rains," said Mangamma, who had just reached the spot when the stampede happened.

The injured and relatives of the dead were enraged.

"The authorities should have taken more measures. This is the second such incident in two months," said Murugesan at the Government General Hospital to see his injured wife.

It was the second stampede since the government opened around 150 relief centers to distribute food to thousands of people after heavy rains lashed the region in October, causing floods that destroyed homes.

Last month, six people were crushed to death as a crowd rushed to collect 2,000 rupees (US$44) in cash, food and clothes being distributed by the authorities.

Officials, however, pleaded helplessness.

"What could we have done if people started lining up earlier? Four policemen who were there at the time were enough to man the crowd. After all, this is not a riot situation," said relief worker Rajendran.

(China Daily December 19, 2005)