Crowd surge at Hindu festival in India leaves 1 dead and many hospitalized

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NEW DELHI (AP) — A sudden crowd surge at a popular Hindu festival in eastern India’s Odisha state on Thursday left at least one person dead and many hospitalized, a news agency reported.

The incident occurred as tens of thousands of people gathered in the coastal town of Puri for the annual Rath Yatra chariot festival, according to the Press Trust of India.

The festival is considered one of the world’s oldest and largest religious processions. The centuries-old festival involves the idols of Hindu deities being taken out of the Jagannath Temple and carried through the streets in colorfully decorated chariots.

Videos from the scene showed injured devotees being carried to hospitals as shoes, bags and other belongings were left strewn across the area in the aftermath of the incident.

Odisha police said in a social media post that rescue teams provided first aid and oxygen to 33 people before transferring them to nearby hospitals.

Last year, three people were killed and more than a dozen hospitalized following a crowd surge during the same festival.

Crowd crushes are relatively common in India during religious festivals, as large crowds, sometimes in the millions, gather in confined areas with few safety or crowd control measures. Last year in January, at least 30 people were killed as tens of thousands of Hindus rushed to bathe in a sacred river during the Maha Kumbh festival, the world’s largest religious gathering.

In 2013, pilgrims attending a Hindu festival at a temple in the central state of Madhya Pradesh panicked amid fears that a bridge would collapse. At least 115 people were crushed to death or drowned in the river below.