At least nine devotees, including a child, died and several people were injured in a stampede in a temple at Srikakulam in Andhra Pradesh.

A large number of devotees had gathered at the temple, revered as ‘small Tirupati’ today, on the occasion of Ekadashi during the holy month of Kartik.

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The crowd exceeded the capacity of the temple, which has a single point of exit and entry, leading to overcrowding and chaos and subsequently to the stampede that left eight women and a child dead. The injured were shifted to Palasa Primary Urban Care Centre.

The Naidu government has come under criticism for repeated incidents of stampede in temples.

Visuals of the stampede were deeply disturbing, with many women screaming as they were trapped in a narrow corridor between walls and stee

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