365 Die as Fire Engulfs School Party in N. India : Disaster: Tent erected for academic festivities erupts in flames. Many of the children--some as young as 5--and adults crammed inside are crushed in stampede to escape. Hundreds more are injured, officials say.

A devastating fire swept through a tent crowded with schoolchildren in northern India on Saturday, killing at least 365 people, many of them crushed in the ensuing stampede, officials said.

The victims, most of them 5 to 17 years old, were attending an annual school awards ceremony held on the lawn of a local community hall in Dabwali, 175 miles northwest of New Delhi.

The fire, which was reportedly caused by an electrical short circuit, started about 2 p.m. and engulfed the tent in minutes, local officials said.

More than 140 people were injured, many with serious burns, officials and news agencies reported.

“Just about every family has lost someone,” Dabwali Police Chief Hari Shankar told the Associated Press. “Everyone is in mourning.”

He said the death toll could rise still higher because some victims were taken by their families to homes or private clinics.

Indian Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao expressed deep shock over the disaster and directed the government of the state of Hariana to make all arrangements to provide relief to those affected.

Bhajan Lal, Hariana’s chief minister, declared three days of state mourning and ordered a judicial inquiry into the incident.

Shrikant Walgad, a senior district official reached in Sirsa, 40 miles from the scene of the tragedy, said medical teams had been drafted throughout the district and in the neighboring province of Punjab to assist the injured.

“Every vehicle, including private and government cars, has been put on rescue work,” said Rohtas Singh, a watchman at the district administration office in Sirsa. “The whole of Sirsa has been pressed into this, and the whole town is caught up.”

“People have lined outside the civil hospital to donate blood,” said Arvinder Singh Bhatti, a businessman in Sirsa.

The United News of India said 1,300 children from the Dayanand Anglo Vedic School, along with their parents, friends and relatives, were gathered at the time of the disaster.

The Associated Press reported that the guest of honor, a local magistrate, saw a spark from the ceiling and yelled “Fire!”

Children and adults rushed for the main exit, trampling many in front of the door.

A few people broke down a locked side exit and escaped, Police Chief Shankar said. Flames spread across linen bunting to the tent, which collapsed.

Police today were looking for a video made by a party-goer crushed in the stampede in search of clues about the disaster.

Authorities said negligence apparently played a part in the tragedy, and they detained the hall manager and several others, the Associated Press reported.

Suman Devi was sitting in one of the rear rows of chairs, waiting for her 5-year-old son, Deepak, to go on the stage to perform a dance with his classmates.

“All of a sudden I saw a flame behind me. I shouted, ‘Fire, fire!’ People were shouting: ‘Tear it down! Tear it down!’ ” she said, referring to the cloth tent.

“I ran out. People were falling over each other. I was pushed out of the gate. I don’t know how I got out,” she said. She was still searching for her son.

It took firefighters an hour to douse the flames, Shankar said.