20 devotees injured in stampede-like situation on Mahashivratri day

At least 20 devotees, including women and children were injured in a stampede-like situation on Mahashivratri on Friday when stones fell from Jatia Baba hill in Odisha where a Lord Shiva temple is located in the outskirts of Rourkela town, police said. A large number of devotees, who trekked over 4 km to reach the spot, had queued up to climb the hill for a darshan of the diety, the police said.

Though the stones did not directly hit the people it created a scare among them and led to the stampede-like situation in which at least 20 devotees were injured, the police said. At around 11.30 AM there was a big sound and someone shouted that stones had started falling from the top of the hill. This triggered the stampede-like situation as devotees ran helter skelter out of fear to save themselves, the police said.

The situation was controlled by policemen, who were deployed in the area for the day. Devotees were then barred from climbing the hill to the temple. We had heard a sound of something rolling down but could not see it as we were inside the temple," said Shyam Saran, a devotee.

An injured woman, who identified herself as Shanta, said I did not see any stone falling but there was a huge sound. I was hit by something on my head, but I am not sure what it was because there was chaos all around me. For some time I was not even aware I was hit."

Most of the injured persons said that they did not see the stones falling, but had heard the sound and were injured in the chaos that followed. None suffered serious injuries. They had small injuries mostly due to the chaos arising out of the fear of stones falling off the hill, said Pundit Sahu, a doctor who attended on the devotees at Rourkela General Hospital.