A group of villagers in southern India have built a shrine to COVID-19 and begun worshipping the virus as a goddess in a bid to end the pandemic.

Residents of Irugur village in the Coimbatore district of Tamil Nadu have created a female effigy which they are calling "corona devi" or "corona goddess" to which they are praying and giving daily offerings.

The villagers say that praying to a virus has historical precedent and was used centuries ago to rid Indian states from plagues.

This clip was filmed on May 19.

Irugur is a village in Coimbatore District of Tamilnadu where a temple for Corona virus has been erected. It's been called as Corona Devi. Usually Devi means the goddess in India.

A villager from the district said "when people suffered from plague a few centuries ago they started worshipping plague. Later the place they worshipped turned into a temple for goddess plague. Likewise now we are worshipping Corona Devi to end all our sufferings" . A black idol that is about 1.5feet long being worshipped with offerings and Maha aarathi (a fire shown to the goddess as a form of worship).

It was erected on Tuesday. Prayers were performed on Wednesday.