Stampede At Tirupati Balaji Temple: Four Devotees Dead, Several Injured

Tirupati, January 8 (TNA) A tragic incident occurred on Wednesday at the world-renowned Tirupati Balaji Temple as a stampede broke out at the token counters set up for Vaikuntha Dwara Darshan. The chaos unfolded when a massive crowd gathered at the counters ahead of token distribution scheduled to begin on Thursday morning.

The stampede led to the death of four devotees, including a woman from Salem, Tamil Nadu, while several others sustained injuries and were rushed to the hospital for treatment.

Why the Rush?

On the occasion of Vaikuntha Ekadashi, the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) is offering Vaikuntha Dwara Darshan for ten days, from January 10 to January 19. The distribution of SSD tokens for these darshans was set to begin on January 9 at 5 AM. To manage the influx of devotees, TTD had established counters in Tirupati and Tirumala.