At least three persons died and several were injured on Sunday morning after a stampede broke out near a temple in Odisha’s Puri district during the Jagannath Rath Yatra festival, The Times of India reported.

The stampede took place between 4 am and 5 am, when a large number of devotees had gathered near the Shree Gundicha Temple to see the deities on chariots that had arrived from the Jagannath Temple in Puri.

Those who died have been identified as Premakanta Mohanty, Basanti Sahoo and Prabhati Das, the newspaper reported.

The injured persons have been admitted to a nearby hospital. Six of them are critical, PTI quoted Puri District Collector Siddharth S Swain as saying.

Later in the day, Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi ordered the transfer of Swain and Superintendent of Police Binit Agarwal, reported The Hindu. He also announced that Puri Deputy Commissioner of Police Bishnu Charan Pati and Police Commandant Ajay Padhi were suspended.

Majhi said that a compensation of Rs 25 lakh each would be given to the families of those who died and ordered a high-level inquiry under the chairmanship of the development commissioner, according to the newspaper.

During the Rath Yatra, the sibling deities Balabhadra, Subhadra and Jagannath are carried in chariots from the Jagannath temple to the Gundicha temple located 2.6 kms away, where they stay for nine days.

This year, the festival began on June 27 and will end on July 5.

On Sunday morning, a large number of devotees had gathered at Saradha Bali near the Shree Gundicha Temple to see the deities. Witnesses said that the situation escalated when two trucks carrying wooden logs tried to enter the area amid the crowds, The Times of India reported.

“The narrow congregation site, combined with limited police presence and scattered palm-log ladders near the chariots, created hazardous conditions for devotees,” the newspaper quoted a witness, Chinmay Patra, as saying.

Majhi apologised on behalf of the Odisha government for the deaths and said that the incident was “unpardonable”.

State Law Minister Prithviraj Harichandran announced a high-level inquiry into the stampede and said that action would be taken against those who were found to have been negligent, The Times of India reported.