PATNA (AFP) - At least 18 people were killed and more than a dozen injured following the collapse of a bridge which triggered a stampede on Monday during a Hindu festival in the eastern Indian city of Patna, officials said. “Bodies of the 18 people killed in the stampede have been sent to the hospital for autopsies,” Jayant Kant, a police superintendent in Patna told AFP. Kant said the stampede occurred when a makeshift bridge erected to help people reach the Ganges river gave way under the weight of devotees rushing to offer prayers to the setting sun as part of an annual Hindu religious ritual. Most of the casualties are thought to have been the result of the stampede and not the collapse of the low-slung bamboo-and-rope bridge designed to help worshippers cross rough terrain.