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Dozens of people are feared to have died in multiple crowd crushes at India’s Kumbh Mela festival, with reports of 40 bodies taken to a local morgue, as vast crowds of people went to bathe at one of the holiest sites of the Hindu gathering.
People were crushed in the early hours of Wednesday as tens of millions of people flocked to the northern state of Uttar Pradesh to immerse themselves in the sacred confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers, on one of the most auspicious days of the Hindu festival.
“Nearly 40 bodies” were brought to a hospital morgue near the site of a crowd crush, Reuters reported, citing three police sources. “More bodies are coming in. We have nearly 40 bodies here. We are transferring them out as well and handing over to families one by one,” one of the sources was quoted as saying.
There has been no official announcement of casualties from the local government.
According to accounts by devotees, one of the worst crushes occurred after large numbers of people went down to the river to bathe, while others were sleeping on the floor around the congested riverbank.
As the crowd surged in different directions, people began to push their way out and many began to fall to the floor, pushing over barriers and trampling each other. Another crowd crush was reported to have taken place around one of the entrances to the festival.
In the aftermath, a number of bodies were seen lying on the floor around the banks of the river. By Wednesday afternoon there was still no official confirmation from the police or Uttar Pradesh government on the official fatalities.
More than 400 million people, the biggest crowd in its history, are expected to attend this year’s Kumbh Mela festivities, held over 45 days in Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh. The Kumbh Mela has been heavily promoted by the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, whose face was visible on posters across the event, and he had earlier praised the “extraordinary” and unforgettable crowds” that were attending the festival.
On Wednesday, Modi called the incident “extremely sad”.
On Tuesday night, as numbers attending the festival for the auspicious bathing day swelled far beyond the expectations of the authorities. Announcements broadcast over loudspeakers at the festival urged new arrivals to get in the water quickly, dip twice and then leave the site immediately, calling it a sin to do a third dip.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, the Uttar Pradesh chief minister, Yogi Adityanath, did not acknowledge any fatalities at the festival. “Between 1am and 2am in the night, some devotees tried to cross over the barricades which were set up for the designated area for the akharas [monastic sects of warrior sadhus, or holy men] to take a bath. That caused some injuries to devotees who were immediately referred to hospital for treatment,” he said.
Shoes and clothes could be seen strewn on the ground by the river bank, amid scenes of desperation at nearby makeshift tent hospitals where the injured and dead were initially brought. The bodies of the dead were later taken to a hospital in Prayagraj.
One paramilitary officer at the scene said: “There were multiple stampedes. There were at least 200 injured and I’d say around 50 dead. I saw them with my own eyes.” One doctor in Prayagraj told Agence France-Press at least 15 people were so far known to have been killed, but other local officials said the death toll was higher.
In response to the incident, the akharas – the sects of ash-smeared holy men known as sadhus, who are the centrepiece of the Kumbh festivities – postponed their holy dip in the water, which had been due to begin at about 4am on Wednesday.
Narayan Singh Lodhi, 50, from Madhya Pradesh, said his sister-in-law Hukam Bhai Lodhi died in the crush after she became separated from her family as they went down to bathe. She had three children, including a daughter who was with her at the festival.
Lodhi said: “I saw people falling to the ground and shouting, and people started treading on each other. I tried to rescue as many people as possible but I could only get hold of my wife and another woman. I dragged them out. I saw around 20 bodies who were clearly dead on the floor who had been crushed and others were lying there injured crying out for help.”
There were similarly frantic scenes at the missing persons booths, where those caught in the crush tried to find missing relatives. Saroj Bhagri, 60, from Madhya Pradesh, was looking for her eight-year-old grandson, Chahat Bhagri.
“We arrived yesterday night and went for a bathe in the river late in the night. We were sitting near the river afterwards having some food. Suddenly people started pushing and falling over us and trampling us. I got up and I was holding his hands but then I was pushed and it got wrenched from me when there was a huge crush.
“When I got up I couldn’t see him and people were running and screaming. When I got up he was gone. There were people lying on the floor. He is only a little boy.”
Manoj Kumar Paswan 45, From Uttar Pradesh, said his 65-year-old aunt, Chanara Prajapat, was missing, after they had gone down to the river in the early hours to take a dip. “There was a commotion and people started falling on each other. There was a sudden push that was so forceful that I lost the hand of my aunt. I somehow managed to grab my mother and we dragged ourselves out.
“I went back to look for my aunt but I couldn’t see her anywhere. It was a very painful and scary experience, people around were crying and wailing. There were over a dozen people lying on the floor including children and people were just trampling over them.”
The Kumbh Mela pilgrimage takes place every 12 years and is widely seen as the “festival of festivals” in the Hindu religious calendar in India, attended by a vibrant mix of sadhus or holy men, ascetics, pilgrims and tourists.
This year’s celebration is particularly significant, as the Maha or grand Kumbh Mela takes place only every 144 years, marking the 12th Kumbh Mela and a special celestial alignment of the sun, moon, Jupiter and Saturn.
