Death toll in food poisoning incident at temple rises to 13
Bengaluru, Dec 16: The death toll in the food poisoning incident at a temple in Chamarajanagar district rose to 13 with two more deaths Sunday, Health Department officials said.
Joint Director Health Department Suresh Shastry said two deaths were reported at Apollo Hospital Sunday.
The deceased were identified as Maheshwari, 36, and Salamma, 35, he said, adding with the two deaths, the toll rose to 13.
One Sharat was critical, he said.
The official said four patients were on ventilator at Suyog hospital and two of them were critical. He said one more person might need the assisted ventilation.
The tragedy occurred on Friday morning at Sulavadi village where special pooja was conducted at the Maramma Devi temple for groundbreaking ceremony.
Later, prasad was distributed and those who consumed it started complaining of stomach pain, vomiting and diarrhoea-like symptoms. They were rushed to hospitals in Bengaluru, Mysuru as well as neighbouring towns.
At least 100 people are still hospitalised, sources in the Health Department said.
A sample of prasad was sent for lab test the same day.
Police are probing suspected foul play in the incident and the villagers have urged the government to take over the temple management as stories are doing rounds that factional feud within the temple management led to the prasad's poisoning.
It has also emerged that the CCTV cameras installed in the temple were defunct. Two people have been detained.
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MP cruise boat tragedy: Search ops expanded to trace four missing passengers
Jabalpur (PTI): Army divers and disaster response teams on Saturday expanded their search at Bargi Dam in Madhya Pradesh to locate a man and three children still missing after the cruise boat tragedy that claimed nine lives two days ago, officials said.
With 28 of the 41 identified passengers onboard the ill-fated cruise boat rescued safely, police are preparing to register an FIR in connection with the accident that occurred at the reservoir in Jabalpur district on Thursday evening, they said.
The search radius has been expanded to 5 km in the backwaters of the Bargi Dam, located downstream of the Narmada River, area sub-divisional officer of police (SDOP) Anjul Ayank Mishra told PTI.
Nine people drowned in the incident, while 28 were rescued, and efforts are ongoing to trace the missing persons, he said.
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According to the police, more than 200 rescuers, including around 20 Army divers airlifted from Agra, began the search operation at 5 am on Saturday to trace Kamraj, an employee of the Ordnance Factory in Khamaria, his son Tamil (5), Vijay Soni (6) and Mayuram (5).
Mishra said that an inquest case has been registered and the post-mortem of nine deceased persons has been completed.
"Our priority is to search for the missing persons. We will soon register an FIR," he said.
Investigators have said that CCTV footage near the boarding point showed 43 people heading towards the ill-fated boat, and the names of 41 persons, who boarded the vessel, have been ascertained so far.
Collector Raghvendra Singh confirmed that a search is underway for four missing persons.
The rescue operation, being carried out by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and local divers, was briefly affected around 9 am due to strong winds.
The state government on Friday ordered a probe into the incident and dismissed three crew members after survivors alleged negligence and safety lapses, including failure to provide life jackets.
The government also banned the operation of similar vessels in the state.
The boat, operated by the state tourism department, sank during a sudden storm around 6 pm on Thursday, and the wreckage was retrieved from the dam water on Friday, after the rescuers confirmed that there were no more bodies inside.
Eyewitnesses have said that strong winds made the water choppy, prompting passengers to raise an alarm and ask the crew to steer the vessel towards the riverbank.
A survivor alleged negligence by the crew and described a last-minute scramble for life jackets.
