Five dead, several injured in temple stampede at Vijayawada

Jan 03:  In a shocking incident at least five people are trampled to death while more than fifteen are injured today in a stampede occurred at the Sri Durga Malleswara Swamyvarla temple, in Vijaywada town of Andhra Pradesh .

Four women and a child have been killed and the injured people have been admitted to Vijaywada's government hospital, which is 280 km east of Hyderabad , the capital city.

The dead have been identified as Rambabu, 8, Lakshmi, 23, Eshwaramma, 46, Ramulamma, 60, Sunita, 38, and KC Babu, 21, hailing from different parts of Andhra Pradesh

Police officials said the stampede occurred at 5 am on Thursday during annual Bhavani Diksha rituals at temple. More than 1 lakh people had congregated on the hill for the last day of the rituals.

People could not desist themselves for a look at the deity and surge towards the temple, when the mishap occurred, said C V Anand, a police official.

Police had warned the temple authorities on several occasions to manage properly otherwise lack of arrangement could lead to any miss happenings but they failed to take necessary precautions. He pointed out that the movement of devotees was limited to one road on the hill, leading to chaos during the rituals.

The turnout was more than expected and the arrangements proved inadequate, leading to the stampede and that led to the accident, said J Ratnakar Rao, Minister for Endowments.

The minister has announced ex-gratia of Rs 1,00,000 each to the kin of those killed and Rs 10,000 each to the injured. He further announced a probe into the incident.

The temple near the river Krishna catches the attention of thousands of devotees every year from all over Andhra Pradesh and neighbouring states.