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Puri: A devotee on Sunday died of suffocation at Gundicha temple in Puri. The deceased has been identified as Krushna Chandra Sahu of Bhimtangi area in Bhubaneswar.
According to eyewitnesses, Sahu, during darshan of the deities felt unconsciousness and suddenly fell on the ground inside the temple premises. With the help of some NGO activists he was rushed to the Puri district headquarters hospital where doctors declared him dead.
Since crowd management during Rath Yatra remains a daunting task for the police as well as the district administration, special crowd management teams have been deployed following the incident keeping in view the rush of devotees in Gundicha temple.
Sources said, last year, two persons were killed during the Rath Yatra. While the identity of one victim — K Rabanamma, a woman from Visakhapatnam — was established, the identity of the other could not be ascertained.
Similarly in 2008, six devotees were killed and 15 others sustained injuries in a stampede outside the 12th-century shrine in Puri during the annual Rath Yatra, they added.
