A crowd surge at a popular Hindu temple in southern India left at least nine people dead and dozens injured, local authorities said on Saturday.
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The incident occurred at the Swamy Venkateswara Temple in the Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh state, where hundreds of devotees had gathered to mark one of Hinduism’s sacred days – “Ekadashi”, senior police officer K. V. Maheswra Reddy said.
On this day, the devotees fast and offer prayers to Lord Vishnu, a key Hindu deity.
An initial investigation suggests that an iron grille meant to maintain the queue of worshippers at the temple broke, leading to the uncontrolled crowd surge, Reddy said.
Senior local government official Swapnil Dinkar Pundkar said more casualties were feared. “Initially, we had reports of seven deaths, but two more people have succumbed to their injuries while the condition of one other is critical,” he said.
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Video footage on local media showed people rushing to help those who fainted in the crowd surge and were gasping for breath. Some were seen rubbing the hands of those who fell on the ground.