At least four devotees forming part of a large crowd coming to visit a religious fair at a Panihati ISKON temple on Sunday died when they jostled for space in sweltering heat. Panihati is a suburban town adjoining northern Kolkata. About a hundred others were injured and had been hospitalised.
According to sources about two lakh people had assembled in the area to take part in the 500-year-old Dahi-Cheera Utsav (Curd and flattened rice festival) when the incident occurred. Local MLA Swapan Ghosh said “as thousands of people jostled for space in the sweltering heat many of them fell ill and some died … about a hundred of them have been sent to hospitals … some of them are critical.”
The administration immediately vacated the premises, Barrackpore Commissioner of Police Manoj Verma said.