Erumeli: A 12-year-old girl collapsed and died at Sabarimala on Saturday. Padmashri of Tamil Nadu collapsed at the Appachimedu stretch of the hill temple. 

The group, of which Padmashri was a part, started ascending the hill around noon. When they reached Appachimedu, she fell ill and collapsed. Though Padmashri was rushed to a hospital there, she could not be saved. 

The body was shifted to the Pampa General Hospital. Meanwhile, police sources indicated that the child had heart problems earlier.
Since Friday night, the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple has been witnessing a huge rush of pilgrims, with the police struggling to control the crowd. Manorama News earlier reported that the Tirupati model queue system that was being tried at the temple became a complete failure as many pilgrims started to break the fences and take shortcuts through forest paths to enter the temple.