When Congress president Rahul Gandhi decided to take his nephew, sister Priyanka Vadra's son Raihan, to the Tirumala temple in Tirupati on Friday, little did he know what security scare lay in wait. Security was beefed up for Rahul and Raihan's visit to the hill shrine, but despite the presence of several security personnel and Congress workers, Raihan went missing for a few minutes, resulting in utter panic all around.

What's more, Raihan was accompanied by a friend, who also went missing for a while. Those present at the venue said the friend's phone was switched off, and they were only traced after about 20 minutes.

Raihan and Rahul climbed the serpentine alley of 3,500 steps along a nine-kilometre road. At some point, however, unable to keep up with their pace, the security detail didn't know of the whereabouts of the teenager.

His phone too was unreachable, causing Congress workers and security personnel to panic. It was only when they finally reached Vadra via his phone that they heaved a sigh of relief. By then, two sets of teams had ventured to find the friend, who was tracked after 20 minutes or so, much to everybody's relief.

Many people in the party weren't told about Rahul's decision to climb the temple until much later, sources said, because of which the trek wasn't sanitised by the SPGs, as is the norm. The trek intersects with the road at several points, and at five such spots, Congress workers stationed cars with refreshments for Rahul. Vadra's friend was also taken in one of the cars to where the group was waiting for him.

"Had it not been for this turn of events, a lot of us would have lost our jobs," a source said.