A power line reportedly breaks and falls onto a section of the crowd, causing panic among the devotees.
The Mansa Devi Temple in Haridwar city witnessed the incident on Sunday, following the fall of a high-voltage electric wire onto a temple path, which sparked a wave of panic among a large number of devotees.
Local police official Ritesh Saha commented to The Times of India, noting that the sight of the wire falling induced immediate panic, leading to a frantic rush to escape causing the stampede.
Senior Uttarakhand government official Vinay Shankar Pandey confirmed the number of deaths. According to media reports from India, one person was electrocuted, while others died in the subsequent stampede.
Police and emergency services responded quickly to the scene and initiated a rescue operation. Roughly 35 injured individuals were taken to a nearby hospital, officials stated.
“The situation is now under control,” Pandey informed The Associated Press by phone from Haridwar. “However, the resulting panic led to tragic outcomes.”
Investigations are underway to determine the cause of the power line’s collapse and to assess the adequacy of crowd management protocols. The temple town attracts millions of visitors annually.
Uttarakhand’s Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami expressed deep distress over the stampede in Haridwar in a post on X.
Stampedes during religious gatherings are not uncommon in India, where vast crowds often assemble at temples or pilgrimage sites, sometimes overwhelming local infrastructure and security.
In June, a sudden surge at a Hindu festival in Odisha caused a stampede that killed at least three people and injured several others. The previous month saw six deaths in Goa after thousands assembled for a fire-walking ritual.
In January, at least 30 people were killed in an early morning crush at the Kumbh Mela, a major Hindu festival in Uttar Pradesh state’s Prayagraj district.
