With just a day left for the authorities to start regulating the inflow of devotees to Sabarimala, the holy hillock on Tuesday witnessed a heavy rush with people waiting in queues for hours to perform the pilgrimage.
The rush to the Ayyappa temple was so intense that the handrail of a flyover at Sannidhanam, through which the pilgrims are routed to the temple, collapsed due to overcrowding. Though some pilgrims fell down, no injuries were reported.
As per official estimates, an average of one lakh devotees have been visiting the temple on a daily basis since its reopening on December 30. In a bid to ease the rush for the Makaravilakku festival, the authorities have brought down the limit of virtual queue bookings for January 14 and 15 to 50,000 and 40,000 respectively.
