At least six people were killed and 35 injured in a stampede near one of India’s busiest and richest temples, after thousands of Hindu devotees gathered there to get free passes to visit, authorities said Thursday.
The period between Friday and January 19 is considered auspicious for visits to the deity at the Sri Venkateswara Swamy temple, popularly known as Tirupati, in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, the site of Wednesday’s incident.
“The stampede took place when the door was opened,” S. Venkateswar, the district collector or senior revenue official, told reporters on Thursday. “About 2,500 people just came through the gate… some fell.”
Authorities are still trying to determine what caused the stampede, he added. Tickets to visit the nearly 2,000-year-old temple usually cost $3.50 (Rs 300) each and are sold online.
A police complaint showed that the incident occurred between 7:30 pm and 8:30 pm outside a school a few kilometers from the temple, where state authorities had set up ticket-issuing counters starting Thursday.
Video footage showed police struggling to control the crowd that had gathered, in clips from the ANI news agency in which Reuters has a minority stake.
People who started lining up early for passes pushed and shoved each other, causing the stampede, Venkateswar said, and about a dozen of the 35 injured people who were taken to the hospital were still being treated.
The temple operator, Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), apologized for the incident and promised to take action against anyone responsible.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, a key ally of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, inspected the stampede site and visited some of the injured in hospital.
The YSR Congress Party, the main opposition party led by Naidu’s predecessor YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, blamed the state government for the incident, calling it an administrative failure.
Modi offered his condolences in a post on X, adding: “My thoughts are with those who have lost their near and dear ones.”
