One Reportedly Dead in Crowd Crush During Puri Rath Yatra

Bhubaneswar–One person reportedly died from suffocation during a crowd crush at the Rath Yatra festival in Puri, Odisha, on Thursday, although authorities had not officially confirmed the death or the incident.

A devotee who witnessed the incident told reporters that a rope barricade near Marichikund Square may have collapsed, or several people may have lost their balance and fallen.

The devotee said about 40 to 50 people fell on top of one another, injuring several attendees. Four or five appeared to have sustained serious injuries.

He said around 20 people were rescued and taken to a hospital by ambulance. He later heard that an elderly person had died.

Sources said about 200 people had been admitted to hospitals and temporary medical facilities in Puri with complaints of suffocation and other injuries as heavy rain and an unusually large crowd strained conditions in the coastal city.

Hundreds of thousands of devotees gathered in Puri for the annual Rath Yatra, which began earlier than scheduled with the Pahandi Bije ritual.

During the ceremony, the deities were escorted from the 12th-century Shree Jagannath Temple to their decorated chariots in a ceremonial procession accompanied by traditional musical instruments, including gongs and trumpets.

Priests chanted Vedic hymns while Odissi dancers performed as part of the rituals marking the deities’ nine-day journey to the Gundicha Temple, which is traditionally believed to be their birthplace.

Although the Pahandi Bije rituals began ahead of schedule, they were completed more than two hours later than planned. (Source: IANS)