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Several people are feared dead and many more injured following a stampede at the Maha Kumbh festival in Prayagraj, northern India, on Wednesday morning.
The incident occurred as tens of thousands of Hindu pilgrims rushed to take a holy bath in the river at the festival’s main ritual site.
Distressed families gathered outside a makeshift hospital, anxiously searching for missing relatives.
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Rescuers were seen assisting the injured, while police attempted to manage the massive crowds that had gathered for the event. Personal belongings, including clothes, blankets, and backpacks, were scattered across the scene, illustrating the chaos. Initial reports from local media indicated that at least 10 people had died, although the exact cause of the stampede remained unclear at the time.
Wednesday was considered a sacred day during the six-week Maha Kumbh festival, with authorities anticipating a record 100 million devotees to participate in the ritual bath at the confluence of three rivers—the Ganges, the Yamuna, and the mythical Saraswati. The festival is one of the largest religious gatherings in the world, attracting millions of Hindus each year.
A key highlight of the event is the arrival of ash-smeared Hindu ascetics in grand processions, who make their way to the confluence to take a holy dip in the waters.
Despite the tragic incident, millions of pilgrims continued to converge on the site, even as police used megaphones to urge them to stay away from the riverbanks.
Yogi Adityanath, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh state, called on people to avoid the confluence and instead take part in rituals at other riverbanks. He did not directly address the stampede in his public statement but advised against paying attention to rumours circulating online.
The Maha Kumbh festival, which began on January 13, takes place every 12 years and is known for attracting vast numbers of pilgrims.
Authorities are expecting more than 400 million people to visit the pilgrimage site in total. To accommodate the large crowds, the government has set up a sprawling tent city with 3,000 kitchens, 150,000 toilets, and extensive infrastructure, including roads, electricity, water supply, communication towers, and 11 hospitals.
Over 50,000 security personnel have been deployed in the city to ensure public safety and manage the crowds. Authorities have also installed more than 2,500 surveillance cameras, some of which use artificial intelligence to monitor crowd density and movement, helping officials deploy resources efficiently.
Sadly, stampedes have been a recurrent issue during India’s religious festivals, where massive crowds gather in tight spaces with inadequate safety measures.
In a tragic incident in 2013, at least 40 people were killed in a stampede at a train station during the same festival in Prayagraj. Earlier in 2023, a deadly stampede also occurred at a religious gathering in Hathras, claiming the lives of at least 116 people, most of them women and children.
The authorities continue to investigate the causes of the latest stampede while working to prevent further casualties during the remaining days of the festival.
Source: AP
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