Malayali woman among six killed in Tirupati temple stampede; body to be brought home soon

PALAKKAD: A Malayali woman was found to be among the six killed in a tragic stampede at Tirupati Tirumala Venkateswara temple on Wednesday night. Three of the victims are women. Nirmala (52), a resident of Vannamada, Palakkad died in the incident. A six-member group including Nirmala and her relatives arrived at Tirupati on Tuesday night.

It was late after the incident that the family came to know about the tragic death of Nirmala. The relatives said that efforts have been started to bring the body home. A sea of people thronged near the token counter of Vaikunta Dwara Darshan in connection with Vaikunth Ekadashion scheduled for Thursday. The accident happened at the counter of Vishnu Niwas. People thronged and pushed, making the security forces look helpless. There were 94 counters at nine locations for token distribution.

BR Naidu, chairman of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD), in a statement, said that the tragedy occurred after the security officials opened a gate to allow an ailing woman to be taken out from the queue. When the gate opened, the devotees pushed forward, taking things out of the control of the officials.

One among the six people killed in the accident, Mallika, a native of Salem, Tamil Nadu, fell ill while waiting in queue at Bairagi park counter. The gate was opened to take her to the hospital but the crowd ran amok when the gate opened.

TTD board member Bhanu Prakash Reddy said such a tragedy, a first in the temple's history. Reddy vowed to investigate the incident and also apologized to the devotees.