At least six people were killed and several others injured in India in a stampede during a Hindu religious gathering in the state of Andhra Pradesh (south), we learned from local authorities on Thursday.
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The stampede came Wednesday as thousands of devotees rushed to collect entry tokens for a planned gathering at the Sri Venkateswara Swamy temple in Tirupati, a major Hindu pilgrimage site.
“This unfortunate incident (…) caused the death of six faithful. I pray that God grants peace to their souls,” a spokesperson for the state’s ruling Telugu Desam Party told reporters.
In a message posted on social media, Hindu ultranationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was “pained” by the accident and offered his condolences to the victims.
Religious gatherings are the regular scene of deadly accidents in India, due to poor crowd management and more generally to shortcomings in safety.
Last July, a stampede caused the death of at least 121 people during a Hindu festival in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.
