Several injured, Covid rules flouted as huge crowd descends on Ujjain temple

The crowd was seen jostling and pushing against each other in a bid to enter the temple. Several tumbled down and others fell over them leading to one of the barricade gates getting damaged, an official said.

Devotees at Ujjain’s Mahakaleshwar Siva Temple (Screengrab)

Several devotees were injured on Monday following a stampede-like situation at Ujjain’s famous Mahakaleshwar Siva Temple.

A video of the incident, in which the devotees can be seen trying to rush inside the temple, went viral. The crowd was seen jostling and pushing against each other in a bid to enter the temple. Several tumbled down and others fell over them leading to one of the barricade gates getting damaged, an official said.

The devotees had gathered to offer prayers on the occasion of the first Monday in the holy month of Shravan.

#WATCH | A stampede-like situation was seen at Mahakaleshwar Temple in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh yesterday pic.twitter.com/yxJxIYkAU5

— ANI (@ANI) July 27, 2021

“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,” the temple’s assistant administrator Moolchand Joonwal told PTI.

“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 said.

Eyewitnesses said social distancing and other COVID-19 norms were violated as people queued up outside the temple, the agency reported.

More details awaited

First uploaded on: 27-07-2021 at 10:33 IST

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Madhya Pradesh

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