At least 15 people are feared dead and many more injured in a stampede as tens of thousands of Hindus rushed to take ritual baths in sacred rivers at the massive Maha Kumbh festival in northern India.
Several pilgrims were injured, some seriously, in the stampede between 1am and 2am local time on Wednesday as they tried to jump barricades erected for the movement of religious saints, Uttar Pradesh state's top elected official, Yogi Adityanath, said in a televised statement.
He made no mention of any deaths even eight hours after the crush of pilgrims at the site.
The crush happened as pilgrims tried to jump over police barricades to reach Sangam Nose, the point where India's Ganges river meets Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati rivers.
“At least 15 people” were killed, a doctor at a hospital tending to survivors told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to talk to media .
Distressed families lined up outside a makeshift hospital inquiring about their missing relatives, rescuers were helping the injured and police tried to manage the crowds. People's belongings including clothes, blankets and backpacks were strewn around the scene of the stampede. It was not immediately clear what triggered the panic.
“The situation is now under control, but there is a massive crowd of pilgrims,” Adityanath said, adding that 90 million to 100 million pilgrims had congregated there.
“About 30 million people had taken the holy bath by 8am Wednesday,” he said.
Wednesday is a sacred day during the six-week festival, and authorities were expecting 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 confluence will cleanse them of their past sins and end their process of reincarnation. The main draw are thousands of ash-smeared Hindu ascetics who make massive processions toward the confluence to bathe.
Millions continued to throng the site even as police officials urged them over megaphones to avoid the confluence. Adityanath urged people to instead take baths at other riverbanks.
The Maha Kumbh festival, held every 12 years, started on January 13 and is the world's largest religious gathering. Authorities expect more than 400 million people to throng 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.
