Salvation House -- where Hindus go to die

They arrive in battered cars, on crutches and sometimes on a stretcher barely able to breathe -- but salvation is close for thousands of Hindus who go to the holy city of Varanasi each year to die. [AFP]

They arrive in battered cars, on crutches and sometimes on a stretcher barely able to breathe -- but salvation is close for thousands of Hindus who go to the holy city of Varanasi each year to die.

Some end up in homes for the elderly overlooking the revered Ganges river where they eventually hope to be cremated but a few struggle to the Kashi Labh Mukti Bhawan, or Salvation House, which is reserved for those with only a few days to live.