At least 6 die in a stampede at a temple in southern India, a report says

NEW DELHI (AP) — At least six people died and dozens were injured in a stampede Wednesday among hundreds at the entry of a temple in southern India, the Press Trust of India news agency said.

The stampede occurred as police opened the temple gates, the agency cited temple Chairman B.R. Naidu Naidu as saying.

Devotees had congregated from across India for a 10-day festival at Lord Venkateswara Swamy temple in Tirupati town in Andhra Pradesh state.

Deadly stampedes are relatively common around Indian religious festivals, where large crowds gather in small areas with shoddy infrastructure and few safety measures. In July at least 116 people died, most of them women and children, when thousands at a religious gathering in northern India stampeded at a tent in Hathras town.

The state’s top elected official, N. Chandrababu Naidu, said in an X post the latest deaths “grieved me intensely.”