Several reported killed in crush at India’s Mahakumbh religious festival

More than seven people – and possibly as many as 15 – have been killed, and many more injured, in a crowd crush at the world’s largest religious festival in northern India, according to reports.

At the festival’s location in the city of Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh, witnesses on Wednesday morning reported that 15 people had been killed in the crush close to a river bank. A doctor at the festival site also reported that witnesses had counted several bodies.

“More than seven people have been killed in the stampede, and around 10 others injured”, an official, who did not want to be named because he was not authorised to speak to the media, told the Reuters news agency.

As police officers carried stretchers containing the bodies of victims draped with blankets to waiting ambulances, footage of rescue teams carrying victims away from the religious site revealed clothes, shoes, and other discarded items strewn all over the ground.

About a kilometer (half a mile) from the accident site, relatives of the injured victims were anxiously waiting for news outside a large tent that served as a purpose-built hospital for the festival.

According to officials, rescue efforts were being led by a Rapid Action Force (RAF) special unit called in during crises.

According to the ANI news agency, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and gave “directions for normalizing the situation and providing relief.”

The Mahakumbh Mela, or Great Pitcher Festival, is the single biggest milestone on the Hindu religious calendar, and up to 400 million pilgrims were expected to visit before the festival’s final day on February 26.

The festival is being held on a 10, 000-acre site (4, 046 hectares) where makeshift tents have been constructed to accommodate pilgrims. One of the six-week festivals features holy men taking sin-cleansing baths along the banks of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers in Prayagraj on Wednesday, which is considered one of the most holy days.

The crowd’s rumbling started early on Wednesday morning, when loudhailers’ officials advised pilgrims to avoid the water.

One festival employee yelled, “We humbly request all devotees do not come to the main bathing spot,” his megaphone ringing. “Please cooperate with security personnel”.

Hindus believe the festival, which is held every 12 years in four locations, is an opportunity for them to wash their sins away as they assemble on the banks of sacred rivers to take part in a day of ritual bathing.

The Mahakumbh, often referred to as the Kumbh, has a terrible track record for deadly incidents, and deadly crowd crushes frequently occur at Indian religious festivals.

In one of the most fatal incidents of its kind, more than 400 people died on one day of the festival in 1954 after being trampled or drowned.

Another 36 people were crushed to death in 2013 – the last time the festival was staged in Prayagraj.