The floor of a Hindu temple tragically collapsed on Thursday under the weight of more than fifty people in Indore, in central India. The faithful who crowded the small xxxx, on the occasion of the celebration of the birth of the god Rama, rushed more than fifteen meters into a cistern that contained about three meters of water. Thirty-six drowned and eighteen were rescued alive. Two escaped unscathed and sixteen had to be hospitalized.
The cistern, which is not clear if it was a historical sacred cistern or a purely utilitarian construction, had been precariously covered “forty or sixty years ago”, according to the residents. According to the Brahmin, a grid was placed on its six meter by six meter surface, which was then covered by tiles.
The tragedy could have been avoided, since last year the residents alerted the municipal authorities of Indore, the most populous city in the state of Madhya Pradesh, whose capital is Bhopal. The temple in question, dedicated to Rama and his consort Sita, is located in a park that also houses a temple for his servant, Hanuman, in one of the wealthiest and most traditional neighborhoods in the city.
The crowd celebrated the birth of Rama yesterday and the crush of people on the unsuspected cistern, at a moment of the ritual, precipitated the catastrophe. The vast majority of Indians cannot swim and the 120 army and civil protection personnel dispatched to the scene arrived too late for 35 of the victims. One more is still missing in the middle of the water, mud and rubble.
As is customary in India to silence protests, the authorities have immediately promised 200,000 rupees (2,200 euros) for each deceased to their closest relative.
