'Pahandi' procession, choked Grand Road : What triggered crowd scare at Puri Rath Yatra
A crowd surge during the annual Rath Yatra festival in Puri, India, resulted in one death and over 100 medical emergencies. The incident has sparked renewed concerns regarding crowd management and safety protocols at large-scale religious gatherings.
Why it matters
Large religious festivals in India face recurring safety challenges, necessitating better infrastructure and crowd control strategies to prevent stampedes.
PURI: A temporary crowd surge during the annual Rath Yatra in Odisha's Puri left one devotee dead and more than 100 others requiring rescue and medical attention on Thursday, raising fresh concerns over crowd management a year after a deadly stampede during the festival.According to news agency PTI, one person died during the crowd surge, while another devotee died of a cardiac arrest in an unrelated incident.The scale of the crowd was evident on the Grand Road, where devotees packed every available inch around the chariots and the Singhadwara area.Thousands stood shoulder to shoulder, leaving barely any space to move as emergency responders struggled to carve out a narrow passage for ambulances through the sea of pilgrims.Rescue personnel could be seen escorting distressed devotees to waiting ambulances while security forces worked to prevent further congestion amid the surging crowd.Earlier in the day, news agency ANI reported that emergency rescue teams…
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