At least six people have been crushed to death and dozens injured as a crowd surged at one of the most visited Hindu religious sites at Tirupati town in India’s southern state of Andhra Pradesh.

A huge crowd gathered to collect free entrance tokens to visit the town’s Sri Venkateswara Swamy Temple when the crush happened on Wednesday night.

“The unfortunate incident … has claimed the lives of six devotees. I pray to God to give peace to the departed souls,” Prem Kumar Jain, spokesman of the state’s ruling Telugu Desam Party, told reporters.

Since early on Wednesday, devotees from across India had begun to congregate for a 10-day festival at the temple that starts on Friday.

Authorities had set up counters to distribute free tokens from Thursday to visit the almost 2,000-year-old temple but the crowd pushed and jostled, according to the office of N Chandrababu Naidu, chief minister of the state.

In a post on social media platform X, Naidu said the deaths “grieved me intensely”.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered condolences to the families of the deceased. “My thoughts are with those who have lost their near and dear ones,” his office said on X.

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Deadly accidents are common at places of worship in India during major religious festivals due to poor crowd management and safety lapses.

In July last year, up to 121 people were killed in Hathras town of the northern Uttar Pradesh state during a Hindu religious gathering.

Another 112 people died in 2016 after a huge explosion caused by a banned fireworks display marking the Hindu New Year at a temple in the southern Kerala state.

Wednesday’s incident came days before the start of the Kumbh Mela, a six-week Hindu festival of prayer and sacred bathing expected to be the largest religious gathering in history. Up to 400 million pilgrims are expected to attend, according to organisers.