A stampede at a popular Hindu festival in eastern India on Sunday left three people dead and more than a dozen hospitalized, local officials said.
“As devotees scrambled to see the idols, there was a sudden surge of people, and some fainted, choked or had difficulty breathing,” said Siddharth Shankar Swain, a senior government official in Puri, according to the Associated Press.
Swain told the AP that 15 people were rushed to a local public hospital, where three were pronounced dead. The cause of death is still pending autopsy confirmation, and another 12 people have been discharged.
According to Swain, tens of thousands of devotees gathered in the coastal town of Puri early that morning at the Shree Gundicha Temple, near the famous Jagannatha Temple, hoping to see the idols on three floats.
The coastal holy city holds the annual Rath Yatra, one of the oldest and largest religious processions in the world, during which idols of Hindu gods are carried out of temples and paraded on colorful floats.
The festival is one of the most revered events in Hinduism, attracting hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from all over India and around the world.
Former Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik posted on social media that “the lack of any emergency response mechanism to deal with the crowds highlights an appalling failure of duty.”
“While I am reluctant to directly accuse the government of criminal negligence, their obvious indifference has undoubtedly contributed to this tragedy,” he said.
Patnaik called the incident “a stampede” and said it “exposed the government’s serious failure to ensure a safe festival for believers.”
The current Chief Minister of Odisha, Mohan Charan Majhi, apologized for the accident on social media, saying the incident was caused by “a stampede caused by devotees vying to see the idol.”
Majhi said the security lapse would be investigated immediately.
“This negligence is inexcusable,” he said, promising concrete action against those responsible.
