Indian officials discover 36 bodies inside well after temple collapse – National
Thirty-six bodies were found in a well at a Hindu temple in central India after dozens of festival-goers collapsed and fell into muddy water, officials said Friday.
A video of Thursday’s collapse at a temple complex in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, showed the ensuing chaos as people rushed to flee. Excavators pulled down the decades-old walls of the temple to help people escape.
About 140 rescue workers, including military personnel, used ropes and ladders to lift the bodies out of the well after pumping water. Narrow passages and well debris made the task difficult.
“We have recovered 36 bodies and all have now been identified,” local government commissioner Pawan Kumar Sharma told the Associated Press.
The secretary of the temple board has died and the president is recovering from his injuries, Sharma said.
Police have charged him with murder less than murder, but no arrests have been made so far, he said.
Witnesses said crowds of devotees flocked to the temple to hold fire ceremonies and celebrate festivals for Lord Rama.
Dozens of people fell into the water when the building collapsed and was covered in falling debris, according to Police Commissioner McCland Deosker.
Kantibai Patel, president of the community association, told reporters that the authorities were slow to respond and the first ambulance arrived on the scene an hour after the alert.
Shivraj Singh Chauhan, the state’s top elected official, said the structure apparently caved in because it could not handle the weight of the large crowd. He ordered an investigation.
A military rescue team joined the operation on Thursday night. The Times of India reported that rescue efforts were swift after underwater cameras showed the bodies floating in the muddy waters of the well.
Chauhan said 33 bodies had been identified. Of the injured he remained hospitalized on Friday with 16 people.
Sobbing relatives took the bodies of the victims and visited hospitals where the wounded were being treated.
The temple authorities stopped using the well many years ago and covered its mouth with iron bars and tiles.
The newspaper reported that city officials ordered the temple owner to remove the cover of the well in January, citing it as a safe and unlicensed structure, but temple officials ignored the warning. It says.
Building collapses are common in India due to poor construction and non-compliance with regulations.
In October, a 100-year-old suspension bridge collapsed into a river in West Gujarat, sending hundreds into the water and killing at least 132 people in one of the worst accidents in a decade.
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