Bhubaneswar, July 25 -- A 57-year-old devotee from Cuttack died during a crowd surge while pulling one of the chariots during the Bahuda Yatra in Odisha's temple town of Puri on Friday, police said.

The deceased, identified as Abhiram Das, reportedly complained of breathlessness while pulling the Darpadalan chariot of Goddess Subhadra and collapsed amid the massive crowd gathered on the Grand Road (Bada Danda), police officers said.

Volunteers, fellow devotees and Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel took Das to a nearby hospital, where doctors declared him dead on arrival.

Officers said preliminary findings indicated that Das died of suffocation. His body was sent for postmortem, and his family was informed.

Several other devotee...