New Delhi - The death toll from a stampede of Hindu worshippers at a temple in India's north-western town of Jodhpur has risen to 224, making it one of the worst accidents of that kind in India in the recent years, officials said Thursday.

Jodhpur's top administrative official Kiran Soni Gupta said by telephone that 77 more deaths reported by relatives were confirmed by the local administration, adding to the earlier death toll of 147.

"A total of 224 died in the stampede at the Chamunda Devi temple on Tuesday," Gupta said.

"Seventy-seven more deaths were reported by relatives who took the injured and bodies from the accident site directly to their homes or private hospitals," she said.

Doctors at two state-run hospitals where 54 injured were admitted for treatment said the condition of two wounded was "critical."

Tuesday's stampede was most likely caused after one of the devotees slipped on the 70-75-metre ramp leading to the hilltop shrine and fell on other pilgrims, causing a cascading effect in which most of the victims were crushed, trampled and suffocated, she said.

All victims of the accident were men as women had a separate queue about 100 metres apart from the men. At the time of the accident there were at least 15,000 people in the vicinity of the temple.

Police said more than 100 policemen, including several officers, were posted at the shrine to regulate the huge crowds that gather annually on the first day of the nine-day Navratri festival dedicated to the mother goddess Durga or Chamunda.

The 500-year-old temple, located on a hilltop within the 15th century Mehrangarh fort, is a popular destination in Jodhpur, a prominent city in India's Rajasthan state located about 350 kilometres west of the state capital Jaipur.

The Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje has ordered an inquiry into Tuesday's accident.

The probe will be headed by a retired state judge and is to submit its report to the government in the next three months, officials said.

Temple stampedes are not uncommon in India where huge crowds gather to pray on auspicious days at complexes where the approach roads and entrances are usually narrow.

In August, a stampede near a mountaintop Hindu temple in northern Himachal Pradesh state killed 145 people. In January 2005, more than 260 Hindu pilgrims, including several children, were killed in a stampede in a temple in western Maharashtra state. (dpa)