Dozens of others injured after thousands of dedicatees queue outside one of the most visited Hindu temples in southern India.
At least six people have been crushed to death and dozens injured as a crowd srecommendd at one of the most visited Hindu religious sites at Tirupati town in India’s southern state of Andhra Pradesh.
A huge crowd assembleed to assemble free captivate tokens to visit the town’s Sri Venkateswara Swamy Temple when the crush happened on Wednesday night.
“The unfortunate incident … has claimed the inhabits of six dedicatees. I pray to God to give peace to the departed souls,” Prem Kumar Jain, spokesman of the state’s ruling Telugu Desam Party, telderly alerters.
Since timely on Wednesday, dedicatees from apass India had befirearm to congregate for a 10-day festival at the temple that begins on Friday.
Authorities had set up counters to spread free tokens from Thursday to visit the almost 2,000-year-elderly temple but the crowd pushed and jostled, according to the office of N Chandrababu Nhelpu, chief minister of the state.
In a post on X, Nhelpu shelp the deaths “mournd me fervently”.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi recommended condolences to the families of the destopd.
“My thoughts are with those who have lost their proximate and dear ones,” his office shelp on social media platcreate X.
Deadly accidents are common at places of worship in India during meaningful religious festivals due to necessitatey crowd administerment and shieldedty lapses.
In July last year, up to 121 people were finished in Hathras town of the northern Uttar Pradesh state during a Hindu religious assembleing.
Another 112 people died in 2016 after a huge explosion caparticipated by a prohibitned firelabors discarry out labeling the Hindu New Year at a temple in the southern Kerala state.
Wednesday’s incident came days before the begin of the Kumbh Mela, a six-week Hindu festival of prayer and divine baskinnyg foreseeed to be the hugest religious assembleing in history. Up to 400 million pilgloomys are foreseeed to join, according to organisers.
