At least three people died and 50 others were injured in a stampede near Sri Gundicha Temple in Odisha’s Puri during Lord Jagannath Rath Yatra. The incident occurred early Sunday morning, around 4-4.30 am amid heavy crowd.

According to Puri District Collector Siddharth S. Swain, the incident happened when hundreds of devotees had gathered near the Shree Gundicha Temple for darshan. The crowd suddenly surged and created a stampede-like situation.

Emergency services responded quickly and the injured were taken to Puri District Hospital. Six of them are in critical condition.

The deceased have been identified as Basanti Sahu from Bolagarh, Premakant Mohanty and Pravati Das from Balipatna, all residents of Khurda district. Their bodies have been sent for postmortem.

The incident took place near Saradhabali, in front of the temple, where Lord Jagannath was seated on the chariot. The crowd became uncontrollable during the darshan, and in the chaos, several people fell and were trampled.

Authorities have launched an investigation into the cause of the incident. “We are looking into what triggered the rush and whether there were any lapses in crowd control,” said an official.

An estimated one million devotees participated in the annual Rath Yatra as the grand chariots of Lord Jagannath, Lord Balabhadra and Goddess Subhadra were pulled through the streets of Puri. The deities are taken to the Gundicha Temple, where they stay for a week before returning to the Jagannath Temple.

Earlier, on Saturday, Sanjay Kumar, Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order), Odisha, had also said that they expect around 10 to 12 lakh devotees to gather in Puri.

Source: India Today