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 outskirts of Rourkela town, police said. A large number of devotees, who trekked over 4 km to reach spot, h queued up to climb hill for a darshan of diety, police said.

Though stones did t directly hit people it created a scare among m and led to stampede-like situation in which at least 20 devotees were injured, police said. At around 11.30 AM re was a big sound and someone shouted that stones h started falling from top of hill. This triggered stampede-like situation as devotees ran helter skelter out of fear to save mselves, police said.

situation was controlled by policemen, who were deployed in area for day. Devotees were n barred from climbing hill to temple. We h heard a sound of something rolling down but could t see it as we were inside temple," said Shyam Saran, a devotee.

An injured woman, who identified herself as Shanta, said I did t see any stone falling but re was a huge sound. I was hit by something on my he, but I am t sure what it was because re was chaos all around me. For some time I was t even aware I was hit."

Most of injured persons said that y did t see stones falling, but h heard sound and were injured in chaos that followed. ne suffered serious injuries. y h small injuries mostly due to chaos arising out of fear of stones falling off hill, said Pundit Sahu, a doctor who attended on devotees at Rourkela General Hospital.