Treasure hunt gone wrong: One killed after a portion of 600-year-old temple collapses in Karnataka

During the early hours of Saturday morning, a young man was killed in Hoskote near Bengaluru. Having gone in a group of 9 to a 600-year-old Muzrai temple, he was crushed as a pillar of the temple collapsed.

Reportedly the group had gone to the temple in search of treasure or valuable items. 3 others were also stuck under the rubble, while 5 others fled the scene.

Youth killed by collapsing temple

Hunting for treasure is hardly an easy process, and for 9 youths in Hoskote, 48 km from Bengaluru found that out late at night on Friday when they arrived at an old abandoned temple— Sri Sarovara Anjaneyaswamy temple. The 9 youngsters had visited the temple at night to dig up the temple floor in the hope of finding riches.

The incident took place between 11 pm and 3 am in the morning, the gang of 9 began digging the floor near the pillars of the temple. However, this caused instability in the temple structure and a portion of the roof fell on top of the treasure hunters.

When the pillar collapsed, Suresh a 23-year-old was crushed underneath and died, two in the group— Srinivas (22) and Manjunath (23) suffered fractures in the leg and the third- Sebastian (22) sustained severe injuries. The other 5 called 108 for an ambulance who arrived and then authorities were alerted. 

The police are looking for their missing companions. Authorities said that the concept of a treasure hunt at temples was a common occurrence. In fact, two months ago a different group had dug in the same spot as the group of 9, in the hope of finding treasure Udayavani reported.