Fire breaks out near Tirupati Govindaraja temple

The fire accident occurred in a shop close to Govindaraja Swami temple on Friday in Tirupati. The chariot is not burnt.

Tirupati: A huge fire broke out in a shop close to Govindaraja Swami temple here, threatening to spread even while fire personnel are trying to put them out on Friday.

As flames rose high, devotees ran helter skelter and traffic in Mada Veedhi was stopped. Six shops and about ten two-wheelers were gutted in the fire.

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The fire accident occurred near the temple chariot. However, local MLA Bhumana Karunakar Reddy who was present at the spot, said that there was no damage to the vehicle and efforts were on to put out the fire at the earliest. He regretted that the opposition Telugu Desam Party was spreading false rumours that the chariot is burnt but the fact remained the chariot was a safe distance away from the fire accident spot.

Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam executive officer Dharma Reddy who visited the place clarified that the temple chariot was safe and appealed to the public not to be carried away by rumours in the social media. Fire tenders were bringing the situation under control and about ten two-wheelers and six shops in the vicinity were gutted by fire, he stated.