At least nine people died and dozens were injured in a crowd crush in a well-known Hindu temple in southern India on 1st November, local officials said.
This was in the Swamy Venkateswara Temple in the Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh state, where hundreds of worshippers had flocked in order to celebrate one of the holy days of Hinduism, which is known as “Ekadashi”, senior police officer K. V. Maheswara Reddy told the Associated Press.
The followers fast on this day and pray to Lord Vishnu, one of the important Hindu gods.
“Preliminary inquiries indicate that an iron grille that was supposed to support the line of worshippers at the temple collapsed, causing the runaway crowd to rush”, Reddy said.
Swapnil Dinkar Pundkar, a senior official in the local government, said that the number of casualties was feared to increase. There were seven fatalities initially, but he reported that there were two more people who died as a result of their injuries, and the health of two more people is critical.
Among the dead, eight are women and one is a child, Pundkar said, but no less than 16 of those injured in the crowd rush are being treated at a local hospital, and 20 others were in shock and under observation at another hospital.
The local media had video footage of people rushing to help those who fainted in the crowd, and gasped for breath. Others were observed rubbing the hands of those who dropped to the ground.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the highest elected leader of Andhra Pradesh, N. Chandrababu Naidu, were grieving and offered condolences to the families of the deceased.
Andhra Pradesh state officials claimed that it was on a private temple on a 12-acre (4.8 hectares) piece of land and not within the jurisdiction of the state. The crowd grew to approximately 25,000 on Saturday, although its maximum was 3,000.
“There were no arrangements to this effect and no information was availed to the government by the concerned individual. That is why it was an accident”, as the fact-checking unit of the state described in a statement on the social network.
According to the local media, Naidu promised to take stern action against those who caused the deadly stampede, and he ordered an investigation into the case.
Religious crowds are not unusual in India, where large crowds can be found congregating around temples or pilgrimage locations to the extent of overloading local infrastructure and security resources.
In July, a surge of people at a well-known Hindu temple in northern India resulted in the death of at least six people, and dozens of others were injured.
