india

Updated: Aug 23, 2019 13:02 IST

At least two people were killed and two critically injured after a wall of a temple collapsed leading to a stampede during a religious gathering in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district late on Thursday night.

Basirhat police officers said that the wall of the temple in Kochua collapsed around 3am killing Tarun Mondal and Aparna Sarkar. Kochua is about 50km away from state capital Kolkata.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee said nine people, including a child, were taken to Calcutta National Medical College in the state capital and two among them were brought dead. Two of them are in “very serious condition”, said the chief minister.

“There was a stampede-like situation, and since the space was narrow, many could not move away. On one side there was a pond and on the other a row of small shops restricting the movement of the devotees,” Mamata Banerjee said at Calcutta National Medical College, where she rushed in the morning.

Mamata Banerjee said the stampede took place after a large number of devotees began arriving at a temple on Thursday night. Heavy rains added to the chaos, she said.

She announced Rs 5 lakh as assistance for the families of those who died and Rs 1 lakh to the seriously injured. Those with injuries that are not marked critical will get Rs 50,000, said the chief minister.

One of the critically injured has been taken to the operation theatre of SSKM Hospital, another state-run hospital in Kolkata, for a surgery. Some of the injured were admitted to other hospitals in North 24 Parganas district.

Mamata Banerjee also went to SSKM Hospital, where a couple of the injured were admitted.

A large number of policemen were deployed at the hospital. No one except patients and their relatives were permitted to enter the hospital.