Tens of thousands of Hindu devotees gathered in the Indian coastal town of Puri for the grand Rath Yatra festival – where 15 people had to be rushed to hospital after being crushed in a crowd surge
Three people were killed and more than a dozen hospitalized Sunday following a sudden crowd surge at a popular Hindu festival in eastern India, a senior government official said.
“There was a sudden crowd surge of devotees for having a glimpse of the Hindu deities during which few people either fainted, felt suffocated or complained of breathlessness,” said Siddharth Shankar Swain, the top government official in Puri.
Swain told The Associated Press that 15 people were rushed to a local government hospital, where three people were pronounced dead and the other 12 were discharged. Autopsies are planned for the deceased to determine the exact cause of death.
Tens of thousands of devotees gathered in the coastal town early Sunday at Shree Gundicha Temple near the famous Jagannatha Temple to catch a glimpse of the deities onboard three chariots, Swain said.
The coastal temple town of Puri comes alive each year with the grand “Rath Yatra,” or chariot festival, in one of the world’s oldest and largest religious processions. The centuries-old festival involves Hindu deities being taken out of the temple and driven in colorfully decorated chariots.
The festival is one of Hinduism’s most revered events and draws hundreds of thousands of devotees annually from across India and the world.
Eleven people have died with dozens more injured after a crush outside the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru ahead of celebrations for Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) who just claimed the IPL title.
The stadium was hosting a victory parade to celebrate the team’s success. When the incident occurred the gates of the stadium “were not even opened, but there were so many people trying to push through a small gate that the stampede took place”, an official said.
Thousands of people had lined the streets on Wednesday and Karnataka state Chief Minister Siddaramaiah told reporters that authorities had not expected so many to turn out. The stadium itself holds just over 32,000.
The BBC reports that more than 200,000 people came out for the victory parade – but they thought only half that amount would attend. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the “mishap in Bengaluru is heartrending” and added that his “thoughts are with all those who have lost their loved ones”.
It comes just months after 15 religious pilgrims were killed in a horrifying stampede at a railway station, as thousands of people attempted to cram onto trains to get to the world’s largest religious gathering.
The crush took place in New Delhi, India’s capital city, in February as pilgrims surged to get on trains to Praygraj, where the Hindu festival Kumbh Mela takes place every 12 years. Tens of millions of the religion’s faithful attend the gathering, which has seen a string of fatal crowd-related disasters in the past.
Followers were crushed while waiting on trains heading to the city, which is created temporarily for the festival, with fatalities being taken to New Delhi’s Lok Nayak Hospital. Medical official Dr Ritu Saxena told AFP: “I can confirm 15 deaths at the hospital.”