The incident occurred as devotees gathered in the town of Indore in the state of Madhya Pradesh to celebrate the Hindu festival of Ram Navami.
In Central India, at least 35 people died and more than a dozen others were injured after the cover of a temple well collapsed and people fell into it, local officials said.
The incident occurred as devotees gathered at a temple in Indore in the state of Madhya Pradesh on Thursday to celebrate the Hindu festival of Ram Navami, officials said.
“We rescued 18 people, found 35 dead and 16 injured,” Ilayaraja T, the district magistrate of Indore, told Reuters news agency on Friday.
VIDEO | Rescue operations are still underway at Beleshwar Mahadev Temple in Indore, where a stairwell roof collapsed yesterday during a ‘havan’ program held to mark Ram Navami. pic.twitter.com/Tmx4M6mffp
— Press Confidence of India (@PTI_News) March 31, 2023
The Times of India newspaper said rescue work was speeded up Thursday evening after underwater cameras showed bodies floating in the muddy waters of the well.
Nearly 140 rescuers used ropes and ladders to pull the bodies out of the pit after pumping out the water. A narrow path and debris in the pit made the task difficult.
Dozens of people had fallen into the well in the temple complex and were covered by falling debris, police commissioner Makrand Deoskar said.
Temple authorities had stopped using the well years ago and covered the mouth with iron grilles and tiles, officials said.
The building collapsed because it could not bear the weight of the large crowd, Chief Minister of State Shivraj Singh Chauhan said.
Chouhan said 18 people were rescued and hospitalized with injuries. He ordered an investigation into the incident.
Municipal authorities ordered temple owners in January to remove the cover from the well because it was an unsafe and unauthorized construction, but temple authorities ignored the warning, the Times of India reported.
Witnesses said a large crowd of devotees thronged the temple to perform a fire ritual on the occasion of the Hindu festival.
Building collapses are common in India due to poor construction and non-compliance with regulations.
In October, a century-old cable suspension bridge collapsed in a river in the western state of Gujarat, plunging hundreds and killing at least 132 people in one of the country’s worst accidents in the past decade.