One killed, 20 injured in stampede during Makar Mela in Odisha’s Cuttack

PTI, Jan 14, 2023, 8:10 PM IST

Image credit: ANI / Video screengrab

Cuttack (Odisha): At least one person was killed and 20 others were injured, four of them seriously, in a stampede in Odisha’s Cuttack district on Saturday, police said.

The incident took place as a large number of people congregated on Badamba-Gopinathpur T-Bridge on the occasion of Makar Mela, a police officer said.

Badamba-Narsinghpur MLA and former minister Debi Prasad Mishra confirmed that one woman, identified as 45-year-old Anjana Swain, died in the incident, while four seriously injured people were admitted to SCB Medical College Hospital in Cuttack city.

Mishra said other injured persons were admitted to a community health centre (CHC) in Badamba.

Athagarh Sub-collector Hemanta Kumar Swain said the incident took place due to a sudden increase in the number of devotees, including women and children, in the afternoon to visit a fair organised on the occasion and also to pay obeisance to Lord Singhanath.

The district administration said the congregation was massive as people were visiting the temple after a gap of two years due to COVID-19 pandemic.

Devotees from Cuttack, Khordha, Puri, Angul, Dhenkanal, Boudh and Nayagarh districts had come to the temple in large numbers, the sub-collector said.

#WATCH | Odisha: One dead, nine injured after a stampede occurred during Makar Mela rush at Singhanath Temple in Baramba, Cuttack.

One dead while nine were injured in incident, three were referred to another hospital in Cuttack: Dr Ranjan Kumar Barik, Baramba hospital pic.twitter.com/t5FM7nkPKw

— ANI (@ANI) January 14, 2023