PRAYAGRAJ, Jan 29 (Reuters) – More than seven people were killed and around 10 injured in a stampede at the Maha Kumbh Mela in northern India on Wednesday, said an official, as tens of millions 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 for the holy dip 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, while others stepped over a carpet of discarded clothes, shoes, backpacks and blankets left by people as they tried to escape the stampede.
A Reuters witness saw several dead bodies as he followed dozens of ambulances rushing towards the river bank where the incident occurred.
“More than seven people have been killed in the stampede and around 10 others injured,” said an official who did not want to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Officials said there had been only one stampede which occurred around 1 a.m. local time (1930 GMT). Its cause was unclear.
Witnesses said devotees started falling on each other when there was a huge push near the confluence of the three rivers, where a holy dip is considered particularly sacred.
“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,” said Vijay Kumar, who came for the festival from the eastern city of Patna.
“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.
RELIEF AND RESCUE
A Rapid Action Force (RAF) – a special unit called in during crisis situations – had been deployed to bring the situation under control and rescue efforts were underway, officials said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and gave “directions for normalisation of the situation and relief”, reported ANI, in which Reuters has a minority stake.
Adityanath also appealed to people to take a dip at the nearest river bank rather than trying to reach the confluence.
“All of you should follow the instructions of the administration and cooperate in making arrangements,” he said on messaging platform X as the devout continued to take holy dips in other parts of the sprawling temporary city.
The world’s largest congregation of humanity, the Hindu festival has already seen gigantic daily crowds, with nearly 200 million people attending in the two weeks until Tuesday.
Attendees range from Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Home Minister Amit Shah to Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani and celebrities like Coldplay’s Chris Martin and actress Dakota Johnson, who local media reported reached Prayagraj on Tuesday.
Modi was also expected to visit the festival next month.
Authorities had expected a record 100 million people to throng the temporary township in Prayagraj on Wednesday for the holy dip, considered the most auspicious day due to a rare alignment of celestial bodies after 144 years.
The ‘royal bath’ was briefly “put on hold” following the incident, but later resumed.
President of India’s main opposition Congress party, Mallikarjun Kharge, in a post on X blamed the stampede on “half-baked arrangements, VIP movement, paying more attention to self-promotion than management, and mismanagement”.
He asked the federal and state governments, both ruled by Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, to “improve the arrangements”.
Authorities had undertaken several measures to cater to the enormous crowd, including increased security and medical personnel, and special trains and buses.
AI-software was also used to manage the crowds.
A similar stampede had broken out on the most auspicious day of the festival when it was last held in 2013, killing at least 36 pilgrims, mostly women.
