Devotees fall into fire pit during ritual, 20 injured

Sources said that the Panguni Uthira festival was being held at the Thenkudi Mariamman temple near Nanilan in Tiruvarur district. As part of the festival, a fire walk ritual was scheduled at 5 pm on Saturday in which hundreds of devotees participated. As per the practice in the temple, those devotees who observe fast for certain number of days will only be allowed to carry the palanquin (pallaku). 

Further, the temple authorities will only allow 30 devotees to carry the palanquin of Kathavaraya Swamy and subsequently make them join the fire walk ritual. 

On Saturday, while the devotees were carrying the palanquin, one of them accidentally slipped into the pit which made others lose balance and fall over him. Around 20 devotees sustained burns in the incident. Some of the injured, Senthil (40), Viswanathan (37), Tamilarasan (30), Ranganathan (25), Ranthavel (35), Vignesh (25), Chandrasekar (45), Rajesh (25), Prabhu (24) and Santhosh (20), were rushed to Tiruvarur medical college and GH, while a few others were sent to a private hospital. Nanilam police have registered a case and are investigating.