Staged Photos? Has Reuters Been Had with an Indian Stampede?

By Tim Grubbs
August 3, 2008
International

A story reported today out of Chandigarh, India tells of a stampede at a Hindu temple which resulted in the deaths of more than 140 people, most of which were women and children, when a few large rocks fell scaring several people which in turn instigated the stampede among the thousands of Hindu followers.

If this story turns out to be an accurate account of things, it is a tragedy and prayers go out to the victims. However, at first glance, the photos from the associated Reuters story (see inset for example) appear a bit suspect. A slideshow of more photos from Reuters and Associated Press regarding this incident can be found here.

Note in this photo: the faces of the victims have been obscured. There is no visible blood (in any of the photos), and the three visible faces in this particular photo all appear to be smiling (see below). Is it possible that Reuters has been had, and given staged and doctored photos? The quality of all the photos is very poor - at least the version available at the referenced site.

The photo inset is from Reuters, and is reproduced here for the purpose of providing critical commentary of said photo, and no free version is available.