At least 35 people were killed on Thursday when they plunged into a well after its cover collapsed inside a packed temple in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, local officials said.
Rescue workers pulled 14 people from the well and were trying to help others who were trapped and injured, Ilayaraja T, a local official, said on Friday. The well is a stair-lined communal water source under the floor at the Shri Bileshwar Mahadev Jhulelal Temple in the city of Indore. Water was being pumped out to help the rescue process.
The temple, and many others all around India, was full of devotees celebrating the Hindu festival of Ram Navami, the birthday of Lord Ram.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered his condolences to families on Twitter, saying he was “extremely pained by the mishap in Indore.”
Video footage from the temple showed people using a ladder to reach people trapped in the well, half of which was covered with iron mesh. Police officers used temple microphones to clear crowds from the scene.
One witness, Prakash Patel, said he was entering the temple when he heard a loud sound and worshipers began running out and crying for help.
“Some people inside the well clung to an iron mesh, and many of those who died were women and children,” he said.
Narottam Mishra, the home minister of Madhya Pradesh state, said that the government had opened an investigation and that the families of those killed would be compensated.
The Ram Navami festival is marked by large Hindu street processions, and this year it fell during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Sectarian violence was reported on Thursday in several places, including West Bengal, Gujarat and Maharashtra states, as the worshipers clashed.
