At least seven people died and more than a dozen were injured in a crush at a Hindu temple in the eastern Indian state of Bihar on Monday, after a falling electricity pole triggered panic among worshippers, Al Jazeera reported.
The incident took place at the Ashok Dham temple in the district of Lakhisarai, where large numbers of devotees had gathered to offer water to the Hindu god Shiva during Shravan, a holy month in the Hindu calendar.
Cause still being verified
Officials said the cause was still being established. “It is being said that an electric pole fell there and people were electrocuted, which led to a stampede-like situation,” senior police officer Shivam Kumar told the news agency ANI. “We can tell you the exact reason only after verifying everything.”
Television footage showed relatives gathering at hospitals as rescuers brought people in on stretchers, according to Reuters copy carried by Daily Mirror.
Early reports on Monday morning put the toll at six, including Ada Derana’s account citing ANI, which noted that Reuters could not immediately verify the report at that stage. The figure was revised upward as the day progressed.
A recurring hazard
Crowd disasters at religious gatherings are a persistent problem in India, where festivals routinely draw crowds numbering in the hundreds of thousands. Thirty people died at the Maha Kumbh festival last year when tens of millions gathered to bathe in sacred waters.
