A stampede at India's Kumbh Mela festival, the world's largest religious gathering, has left several feared dead and many injured.
Tens of thousands of Hindu devotees bathe in the sacred river confluence of the Ganges, Yamuna, and mythical Saraswati on Wednesday, a holy day during the six-week festival.
Authorities were anticipating a record 100 million devotees to participate in ritual bathing on this auspicious day.
The festival, held every 12 years, commenced on January 13th and is expected to draw more than 400 million pilgrims to the site this year.
There have been other tragic incidents in India over the past two decades.
Stampede in Uttar Pradesh in 2024
More than 100 people were killed in a stampede in northern India in July 2024 following a Hindu religious gathering, making it one of the deadliest such accidents in years. Thousands had gathered at a makeshift tent for an event led by a Hindu preacher in Uttar Pradesh state. The victims were crushed to death as they rushed to leave. Video of the aftermath showed the makeshift structure appeared to have collapsed.
Bridge collapse at the Navaratri festival in 2013
A collapsing bridge caused a stampede that killed 115 people, mostly women and children, on 13 October, 2013. Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims had come to a Hindu temple in the remote town of Ratangarh in Madhya Pradesh state on the last day of the popular 10-day Navaratri festival.
Stampede at a Hindu temple in Jodhpur in 2008
At least 168 people were killed and 100 injured when thousands of pilgrims stampeded at a Hindu temple in Jodhpur on 30 September, 2008. Severe overcrowding apparently caused the crush, as more than 12,000 people gathered at the temple to celebrate Navaratri, a Hindu festival.
Landslide rumours caused deadly crowd surge in 2008
Dozens of women and children were among the 145 people who died on 3 August, 2008, when thousands of pilgrims stampeded at a remote mountaintop temple in northern India during celebrations to honour Shakrti, a Hindu goddess. The devotees attended a nine-day religious festival at the Naina Devi Temple in the Bilaspur district of Himachal Pradesh state. Rumors of a landslide apparently started the panic, according to a senior government official.
Stampede and blaze during a religious procession in 2005
A stampede during a religious procession to a hilltop temple on 25 January, 2005, killed at least 258 people and injured 200 in western India, near the village of Wai, some 150 miles (241 kilometers) south of Mumbai. The stampede was triggered after several Hindu pilgrims inside the temple fell on a slippery floor and were crushed to death by other pilgrims who apparently walked on them. Angered over the deaths, some pilgrims started a fire that gutted hundreds of makeshift shops along a narrow walkway leading to the temple and set off the deadly rush.
