Authorities of one of India’s richest temples have apologised after at least six pilgrims were killed in a stampede in the southern temple town of Tirupati. The devotees were waiting in queues to collect tokens from over 90 counters to offer prayers to Lord Venkateshwara Swamy on Wednesday when the incident took place, local police said.

In spite of lakhs of people visiting the temple towns of Tirumala and Tirupati, stampedes involving devotees are rare. So what happened this time? We explain.

How Did The Tirupati Stampede Took Place? On Wednesday night, about 4000 devotees were queueing up for special darshan tokens. Multiple media reports have said that a woman devotee now identified as Mallika suddenly fell ill while she was waiting in the queue The queue was for one of the token counters at Bairagi Pattida Park.

The chaos unfolded when large crowds were pushing to secure their tokens for the auspicious Vaikuntha Dwar Darshanam. The sudden rush to get ahead resulted in a stampede, leaving several casualties in its wake.

At least six people were crushed to death and more than 30 injured when large crowds gathered to get tickets for a festival in India’s Tirupati temple, one of the richest in the world. The incident occurred late on Wednesday when hundreds of devotees jostled for tickets for the 10-day Vaikunta Dwara Darshanam starting January 10 at the Venkateshwara Temple,