05/08/2008 (Agence Europe) - EU Foreign Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero Waldner sent a message of support on Monday 4 August 2008 to Indian foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee after a stampede outside the Naina Devi temple in the Bilaspur district of Himachal Pradesh in India, which killed at least 145 pilgrims on Sunday 3 August who had gathered for a Hindu religious festival. 'It was with great sadness that I learned of the major accident at the Naina Devi shrine which claimed so many innocent lives. Please allow me, on behalf of the European Commission, to express my deepest condolences to the government of India. My thoughts are with the families who have been bereaved and with those who have been injured in this tragic event,' said Ferrero-Waldner in a press release. (A.B. transl fl)