36 people killed after well collapses at Indian temple

Thirty-six bodies have been found deep inside a well at a Hindu temple in central India after dozens of festival-goers fell into the muddy water when the lid collapsed, officials said on Friday.

Video of Thursday’s collapse at a temple complex in Indore in the state of Madhya Pradesh shows the chaos that followed, with people fleeing. Excavators pulled up the decades-old walls of the temple to help people escape.

Nearly 140 rescuers, including army personnel, used ropes and ladders to pull the bodies from the well after pumping water. The narrow path and debris in the well made the task difficult.

“We have recovered 36 bodies and everyone is now,” Pawan Kumar Sharma, commissioner of the local municipal corporation, told The Associated Press.

The secretary of the temple council was among the dead and the president is recovering from injuries, Sharma said.

Witnesses said that many people worshiped at the temple to perform fire rituals and celebrate festivals for Lord Rama.

Dozens of people fell into the water when the structure collapsed and was covered in falling debris, police Commissioner Makrand Deoskar said.

State officials ordered an investigation

Kantibhai Patel, president of the residents’ association, told reporters that the authorities were slow to react and the first ambulance reached the spot within an hour of the alert.

The structure appeared to be collapsing because it could not handle the weight of the crowd, said the state’s top elected official, Shivraj Singh Chauhan. He ordered an investigation.

Army rescue teams joined the operation on Thursday night. The Times of India newspaper reported rescue efforts were accelerated after underwater cameras showed bodies floating in muddy well water.

Chauhan said 33 bodies have been identified. Sixteen people who were injured remained in hospital on Friday.

Weeping relatives called out the bodies of the victims and visited hospitals where the injured were being treated.

The temple authorities had stopped using the well years ago and covered its mouth with an iron grill and tiles.

The municipal authorities in January ordered the temple owners to remove the cover of the well as the structure was unsafe and illegal, but the temple authorities ignored the warning, the newspaper said.

Building collapses are common in India due to poor construction and non-compliance with regulations.

In October, a century-old cable-stayed bridge collapsed into a river in the western state of Gujarat, plunging hundreds of people into the water and killing at least 132 in one of the country’s worst accidents in decades.