Several people, including women and children, were injured in Ujjain’s Mahakaleshwar Temple on Monday after a stampede-like situation occurred. In a viral video, devotees can be seen pushing and jostling against each other while flouting COVID rules in a bid to rush inside the temple.
The situation at the temple went out of control when people along with the VIPs, including Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan and former CM Uma Bharti, thronged to the temple affecting the crowd management, reported India Today.
People had gathered at the temple to offer prayers on the occasion of the first Monday in the month of Shravan.
Police personnel, who were trying to control the situation, were also overpowered by the crowd, as an official said that many people fell on each other, after which one of the barricade gates was damaged, media reports said.
See the video here:
#WATCH | A stampede-like situation was seen at Mahakaleshwar Temple in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh yesterday pic.twitter.com/yxJxIYkAU5
— ANI (@ANI) July 27, 2021
Temple assistant administrator Moolchand Joonwal told news agency PTI, “At around 8:30 am, a large number of people tried to enter for darshan and in the process broke the barricade at gate number four of the temple complex. After the barricade broke, several people tried to run towards the main deity but thankfully there was no untoward incident.”
“Due to it being the first Monday of the holy month of Shravan, people were allowed to stand in queues for darshan apart from pre-booking. However, the crowd that turned up was much larger than what we expected,” he told PTI.
The Mahakaleswar Temple had opened last week for people who have at least received one shot of the COVID-19 vaccine.