At least six dead in ‘stampede-like’ incident at India temple

What the report says

At least seven people died and more than a dozen were injured in a crowd crush described by officials as a “stampede-like” incident at the Ashok Dham temple in Lakhisarai, in India’s eastern Bihar state, according to Al Jazeera and Reuters. The incident took place as devotees gathered at the temple to offer water to the Hindu god Shiva during the holy month of Shravan, a period that often draws large religious crowds in India.

Local authorities said the immediate trigger may have been a falling electricity pole. A senior police officer told ANI that people may have been electrocuted before the crush developed, but said the exact cause still needed to be verified. Civil officials said more than a dozen injured people were taken to hospital for treatment, while videos circulating from the area showed relatives and rescue workers at hospitals.

Bihar Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary called the deaths tragic and said the administration had been instructed to ensure prompt medical care for the injured. The incident adds to longstanding concerns about crowd safety at major religious gatherings in India, where dense pilgrim traffic and weak infrastructure have sometimes contributed to deadly accidents. Al Jazeera noted that the country has seen similar crowd disasters before, including during the Maha Kumbh festival last year.