Chariot wheels kill two in Odisha

Odisha Channel Bureau Berhampur, June 30: As millions of people celebrated Rath Yatra across the world, two persons – a woman and her grand-daughter – died after they came under the wheels of a chariot of Lord Jagannath in Patapur area of Odisha’s Ganjam district on Sunday.The victims came under the wheels when the chariot was being pulled by the devotees at Singhpur village under Patapur police station limits.While the woman Rukmini Sahu (63) died on the spot, the child Laxmi (6) breathed her last at the MKCG Medical College in Berhampur where she was admitted after the accident, according to the police.The Rath Yatra celebrations had passed off peacefully in Puri as well as hundreds of other places in Odisha.The three chariots of Lord Jagannath, Lord Balabhadra and Devi Subhadra had reach at Sharadhabali near Gundicha temple in Puri by Sunday evening.The Yatra was conducted peacefully even though Puri Shankaracharya skipped his customary visit to the chariots to offer his prayers.