At least 30 people were killed and many more injured in a stampede at the world’s largest religious gathering early Wednesday, police said, as millions of pilgrims rushed to dip in sacred waters during the Maha Kumbh festival in northern India.
Wednesday was a sacred day in the six-week Hindu festival, and authorities expected a record 100 million devotees to engage in a ritual bath at the confluence of the Ganges, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati rivers. Hindus believe that a dip at the holy site can cleanse them of past sins and end the process of reincarnation.
The stampede happened when pilgrims tried to jump barricades erected for a procession of holy men, Uttar Pradesh state’s top elected official, Yogi Adityanath, said in a televised statement.
The event’s main draw is the thousands of ash-smeared Hindu ascetics who make massive processions toward the confluence to bathe.
Indian authorities took more than 16 hours to release casualty figures, even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi acknowledged the loss of lives, calling the incident “extremely sad” and extending his condolences.
“Suddenly there was pushing in the crowd, and we got trapped. A lot of us fell down and the crowd went uncontrolled,” the Press Trust of India news agency quoted pilgrim Sarojini as saying. “There was no chance for escape, there was pushing from all sides,” she said.
Distressed families lined up outside a makeshift hospital, desperate for news of missing loved ones. Clothes, blankets and backpacks were strewn around the site of the stampede.
Millions continued to throng the 4,000-hectare (15-square mile) pilgrimage site despite the stampede, even as police urged them over megaphones to avoid the confluence. Adityanath urged people to take baths at other riverbanks instead.