(MENAFN- Live Mint) Tirupati stampede: In a shocking incident, six people lost their lives when a crowd went out of control during 'darshan' token distribution near Tirupati temple in Andhra Pradesh on January 8. Now, survivors of the deadly stampede at have shared their ordeal, with complaints ranging from long waiting hours to sudden opening of the gates that prompted the crowd to surge ahead.
Tirupati Stampede LIVE Here's what they said
One devotee , named, D Venkata Lakshmi expressed shock and said that she has been visiting Tirupati for the last 25 years and nothing like this happened before. She added that six boys pulled her aside and gave some water to drink. While speaking to a news channel, she said,“For five minutes we thought all of us were dead. I have been coming to the temple for the past 25 years and it has never happened like this,” she told the channel as quoted by PTI.
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"Though I was raising a hue and cry t hat I was falling on the side, people were still rushing from behind and could not be controlled. I don't know if they were pushing ahead, but the men were uncontrollable. People were walking over devotees. I could not even breathe for a long time," she said as quoted by PTI. She further stated that if the police had allowed the devotees to move in an orderly manner, the disaster could have been prevented.
Another devotee mentioned that she arrived at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, but the gate was only opened at 7 p.m. She added that although one person advised the devotees to stay in line and not rush,“but who will listen? Police were outside, not inside,” as quoted by PTI.
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One male devotee complained about the police management and said that they were told about the presence of 5,000 devotees, however, he claimed that police opened the gates suddenly, leading to the stampede.
One devotee who lost his wife in the tragedy also complained to NDTV about poor management by police. "The police management was very poor. My wife was ahead in the queue. We did not even realise that she had fallen. After the stampede, we desperately looked for her at hospitals, but we could not locate her. We found out about her death from a viral video,” he told NDTV.
(With all inputs from PTI)
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