Puri, July 18: Two unidentified women died in a stampede that took place at two places on Grand Road as thousands of devotees pulled the chariots of Lord Jagannath and his siblings, Subhadra and Balbhadra here today.

Health secretary Arti Ahuja confirmed that two women were brought dead to the district headquarters hospital.

She said while one of the victims was aged between 60 and 65 years, the other was somewhere between 50 and 55 years. Both died of suffocation. She said two others, who were seriously injured, had been shifted to Cuttack.

Chief minister Naveen Patnaik condoled the deaths and announced that free medical treatment would be provided to the injured.

However, director general of police Sanjeev Marik claimed that only one woman had died of exhaustion during the festival.

"There were no external injury marks on her body," Marik said.

Sources said the stampede took place at two places on the Grand Road on which the chariots rolled.

One of the victims died of suffocation when a section of the crowd began to run at Marichkote Chhak. The other woman was asphyxiated in a similar situation between Town police station and Market Chhak on the route of the chariots.

Four persons reportedly sustained minor injuries when they fell from a terrace while watching the raths roll on Grand Road.

In Berhampur, G. Jagannath Reddy, 28, a resident of Deo Colony in Lanjipalli, was crushed to death when the devotees were pulling the chariot this afternoon.

In another development, ruling BJD's Begunia MLA, Prashant Jagdev and Puri superintendent of police, Ashish Singh almost came to blows following an argument when the officer refused to let the legislator inside the security cordon around the chariots.