At least seven devotees were killed and 12 injured in a stampede during the entry of devotees into a temple in Bihar’s Lakhisarai district on the auspicious occasion of the third sombari of the Shravan month of the Hindu calendar on Monday. Most of those killed in the stampede were women.
Officials said crowds of devotees became uncontrollable as they attempted to enter the Indramaneshwar Temple in Ashokdham, one of the oldest Shiva temples in Bihar, leading to the stampede after barricades the police had erected for crowd control were broken.
What caused the Bihar stampede?
Lakhisarai district magistrate Shailendra Kumar said the incident took place around 6:40am when some youngsters tried to force their way through a queue, breaking barricades. “Women in the queue fell on each other,” he said, as he rushed to Lakhisarai Sadar Hospital.
Kumar said that security personnel were managing the heavy rush of devotees, and that the situation was under control. “Those said to be injured had actually fallen sick because of extreme humidity and suffocation caused by overcrowded surroundings. They were being treated at the hospital, and their condition is out of danger.”
Witnesses blame crowd management
Witnesses blamed the lack of crowd management for the stampede. An estimated 50,000 people gathered at the temple. Eyewitnesses said rumours of an electric current in a pole spread panic among the devotees, as they started running. Locals and devotees tried to pull the trapped people.
A police officer said the crowd grew restless, and many began to jostle. “The situation was soon brought under control.” A second police officer said the crowd had started pouring into the temple since Sunday night. “The queue stretched for over six kilometres. It took an average of four hours for a pilgrim to get inside the temple.”
Bihar CM reacts
Chief minister Samrat Choudhary expressed grief over the stampede, describing the incident as heart wrenching. He announced ₹4 lakh ex-gratia for families of the deceased.
The CM also said directives have been issued for immediate medical treatment of those injured in the stampede.
“The incident at Ashok Dham in Lakhisarai is extremely tragic and heart-wrenching,” he wrote on X. “The news of the deaths of devotees in the accident has left my heart deeply distressed. My deepest condolences go out to the bereaved families. Necessary instructions have been issued to the administration for the proper and expeditious treatment of the injured. May God grant peace to the departed souls and a swift recovery to the injured.”
Latest in series of stampedes
The Bihar temple stampede is the latest in a series of such stampedes. It came days after a devotee was killed and over 100 others fell ill during a temporary crowd surge at the annual Jagannath Rath Yatra in Odisha. In January 2025, at least 30 people were killed in a stampede at the 2025 Prayag Kumbh Mela at the confluence of the Ganga, Yamuna, and Saraswati rivers in Prayagraj. This is the sixth stampede during the Kumbh Mela in 70 years. In the same month, at least six people were killed and 35 injured in a stampede near Sri Venkateswara Swamy Temple (Tirupati) in Andhra Pradesh as devotees assembled there to secure free visit passes.
In July 2024, around 121 people died after thousands of devotees rushed to get a closer glimpse of a preacher in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras district. At least 12 people died in a stampede at the Vaishno Devi temple in Jammu and Kashmir after a crowd of devotees tried to enter the shrine in January 2022.
In March, a stampede at Sheetla Mata Temple in Bihar’s Nalanda left eight people dead and 12 others injured amid heavy crowds. The temple was packed with devotees, with witnesses saying barricades broke and people fell and were trampled.
The Ashokdham Temple in Bihar
Ashokdham, also known as Indradamneshwar Mahadev Temple, is a prominent Lord Shiva shrine in Bihar’s Lakhisarai district. The temple complex has the main Indradamneshwar Mahadev shrine at its centre, along with temples dedicated to Goddess Parvati, Nandi and Goddess Durga. The temple is particularly crowded during Sawan and Shivratri, when large numbers of devotees visit to offer prayers to Lord Shiva.
