At least nine people, including a woman and a 12-year-old boy, were killed in a stampede at Andhra Pradesh’s Kasibugga temple in Srikakulam on Saturday.
The death toll was earlier put at 10 by Srikakulam District Collector Swapnil Dinkar Pundkar, but was later revised to nine.
“Nine (deaths). Only nine, (the condition of) one person is a bit serious. He is not dead. Nine people in total. There is one child, a 12-year-old child; the rest (victims) are all women. And it is a private temple. It is not a government temple. It was built recently,” said KV Maheswara Reddy, Srikakulam Police Intelligence Agency, KV Maheswara Reddy.
A police official revealed that the incident took place when an iron grating collapsed at the steps at the entrance of the temple. The public panicked and fell about six feet. Police said that since the collapse was from a height of six feet, one person fell on top of another, leading to a stampede.
“It’s purely accidental and due to the owner’s mistake. They didn’t ask for the police bandobus, they also didn’t have any permission,” the SP told PTI.
“It is a private temple where a private person built it on his private land. He did not take any permission and did not inform the local police about today’s program… In the morning when we got the information, we sent forces but it was too late because there was no prior information from the person from the temple who organized this program. So nobody communicated with ANI yesterday or today because of this.”
“As soon as we got the information, we sent them. Now the situation is completely calm. There were around 3,000-3,500 people here. Only two are in a serious condition, but everyone else is fine,” he added.
Third stampede in Andhra in 2025
This is the third major stampede in Andhra Pradesh in 2025 and a total of 22 people died and nearly 100 people were injured in these incidents.
In April, seven people were killed after a rain-soaked wall collapsed at the Sri Varaha Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy in Simhachalam near Visakhapatnam.
In January, six people died and around 40 were injured in a stampede in Tirupati’s Bairagi Patteda. Devotees gathered there to collect tickets for the Vaikunta Dwara Darshanam at the Sri Venkateswara Swamy Temple on the Tirumala Hills.
A series of tragedies hit Andhra Pradesh this week
Andhra Pradesh has been dealing with three tragedies in the space of about a week. First, 20 people were killed in Kurnool when a Bengaluru-bound bus caught fire. Then cyclonic storm Montha ravaged the coastal areas of the state leaving behind worth of damage ₹5,244 crore and now the stampede has resulted in the loss of nine lives.
Leaders across the political spectrum expressed their condolences following the tragedy. From President Droupadi Murma and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi, everyone posted messages of condolence on social media.
