At least 15 people died and many more were injured in a stampede at the Kumbh Mela, the world’s largest religious gathering in India. The incident occurred in the early hours of Wednesday, during one of the holiest days of the festival, when millions of pilgrims were expected to participate in a ritual bathing.
Deadly crowd crushes are a notorious feature of Indian religious festivals and the Kumbh Mela already had a grim track record.Police personnel carry victims of an India stampede amid the ongoing Maha Kumbh Mela festival in Prayagraj on 29 January 2025. Image: ARUN SANKAR/AFP
Rescue teams were seen working with pilgrims to carry victims away from the site of the accident over ground strewn with clothes, shoes and other discarded belongings. Wednesday marks one of the holiest days in the festival, when saffron-clad holy men were due to lead millions into a procession of sin-cleansing ritual bathing at the confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers.
Organisers have likened the scale of this year’s festival to that of a temporary country, forecasting up to 400 million pilgrims to visit before the final day on 26 February. More than 400 people died after being trampled or drowned at the Kumbh Mela on a single day of the festival in 1954, one of the largest tolls in a crowd-related disaster globally.
INDIA KUMBH MELA STAMPEDE RELIGIOUS FESTIVAL PILGRIMAGE
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