Balasore: Throwing an open challenge to police, unidentified miscreants looted ornaments of the deities worth lakhs from at least three temples in Kamampur village near Soro in the district last night.
The incident came to light after priests of Danda Kali, Kamaneswar Shiva and Panchamukhi Hanuman reached their respective temple to perform morning Puja and found the items missing from the premise.
Gold and silver ornaments of the deities including crowns, eyes, chitta, and necklaces had been stolen, said temple officials.
While the locks of the several doors in the looted temples were found broken it is being suspected that the looters used cutter machines to open the grills.
Police have reached the spot and started investigation.
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Ms Kalinga