At least 12 dead after stampede at major religious festival in India
Several people have been killed and dozens more injured in a stampede at the Maha Kumbh Mela festival in northern India.
Tens of millions of pilgrims gathered to take a holy dip on the most auspicious day of the six-week Hindu festival.
Drone footage showed millions of devotees, shoulder to shoulder, arriving in the pre-dawn dark at the temporary township in Prayagraj at the confluence of three rivers – the Ganga, Yamuna, and the mythical, invisible Saraswati.
Video and photographs after the stampede showed bodies being taken away on stretchers and people sitting on the ground crying.
Others stepped over a carpet of discarded clothes, shoes, backpacks and blankets left by people as they tried to escape the rush.
Vijay Kumar, who came for the festival from the eastern city of Patna, said: ‘We had barricades in front of us and police with batons on the other side.
‘The push from behind was very powerful,…people started falling. There were people lying all around, I don’t know if they were dead or alive.’
A woman who was part of the crowd but did not give her name also told news agency ANI that she and her mother were among those who fell.
‘People kept stepping on us. I am safe but my mother has died,’ she said.
Yogi Adityanath, the top elected official in Uttar Pradesh, said: ‘The situation is now under control, but there is a massive crowd of pilgrims.’
He added that ‘about 30 million’ of the ’90 to 100 million’ pilgrims had bathed in the water by 8am on Wednesday.
An official said at least seven people have been killed. Other reports put the death toll at more than 12.
The Maha Kumbh festival, held every 12 years, started on January 13 and is the world’s largest religious gathering.
Hindus believe that a dip at the convergence will cleanse them of their past sins and end their process of reincarnation.
Authorities expect more than 400 million people to flock to the pilgrimage site in total.
Nearly 150 million people have already attended, including the likes of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Home Minister Amit Shah and celebrities like Coldplay’s Chris Martin.
A sprawling tent city was built on the riverbanks to accommodate visitors. It has roads, electricity and water, 3,000 kitchens and 11 hospitals.
About 50,000 security personnel are stationed in the city to maintain law and order and manage crowds, and more than 2,500 cameras monitor crowd movement and density so officials can try to prevent such crushes.
Deadly stampedes are relatively common around Indian religious festivals, where large crowds gather in small areas.
In 2013, at least 40 pilgrims who were taking part in the same festival were killed in a stampede at a train station in Prayagraj.
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