NEW DELHI — Three folks have been killed and greater than a dozen hospitalized Sunday following a sudden crowd surge at a well-liked Hindu pageant in japanese India, a senior authorities official mentioned.
“There was a sudden crowd surge of devotees for having a glimpse of the Hindu deities throughout which few folks both fainted, felt suffocated or complained of breathlessness,” mentioned Siddharth Shankar Swain, the highest authorities official in Puri.
Swain advised The Related Press that 15 folks have been rushed to a neighborhood authorities hospital, the place three folks have been pronounced useless and the opposite 12 have been discharged. Autopsies are deliberate for the deceased to find out the precise reason for demise.
Tens of hundreds of devotees gathered within the coastal city early Sunday at Shree Gundicha Temple close to the well-known Jagannatha Temple to catch a glimpse of the deities onboard three chariots, Swain mentioned.
The coastal temple city of Puri comes alive every year with the grand “Rath Yatra,” or chariot pageant, in one of many world’s oldest and largest spiritual processions. The centuries-old pageant includes Hindu deities being taken out of the temple and pushed in colorfully embellished chariots.
The pageant is one in every of Hinduism’s most revered occasions and attracts a whole bunch of hundreds of devotees yearly from throughout India and the world.
Naveen Patnaik, a former high elected official of Odisha state the place Puri is positioned, mentioned in a social media publish that “no authorities equipment (was) current to handle the surging crowds, highlighting a stunning lapse in responsibility.”
“Whereas I chorus from accusing the federal government of prison negligence, their blatant callousness has undeniably contributed to this tragedy,” he mentioned.
Patnaik known as the incident a “stampede” that “exposes the federal government’s obtrusive incompetence in guaranteeing a peaceable pageant for devotees.”