A pre-dawn stampede at the Maha Kumbh Mela festival killed at least 30 people in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, on Wednesday, with more than 90 injured after a surging crowd spilt out of a police cordon and trampled bystanders.
Deadly crowd incidents are a frequent occurrence at Indian religious festivals, including the Kumbh Mela, which is the world’s largest religious gathering. The festival attracts tens of millions of devotees every 12 years to the northern city of Prayagraj.
As pilgrims rushed to participate in a sacred day of ritual bathing, people sleeping and sitting on the ground near the rivers told AFP they were hit and trampled in the darkness.
“The crowd came like a tornado,” said Ms Maul Devi, a survivor from eastern Uttar Pradesh. “Most of them were young men running towards the bathing area. There was no control, only mayhem. I fell twice with my sister, holding onto her hand as tightly as I could. But then the weight of the falling men broke us apart. She was crushed to death in front of my eyes.”
Pilgrim Renu Devi, 48, said: “The crowd fell on top of me and trampled me. When the crowd surged, elderly people and women were crushed, and no one came forward to help.”
Rescue teams carrying victims from the accident site weaved through piles of clothes, shoes and other discarded belongings.
Police were seen carrying stretchers bearing the bodies of victims draped with thick blankets.
“Thirty devotees have unfortunately died,” senior police officer Vaibhav Krishna said. “Ninety injured were taken to the hospital.” Mr Krishna’s briefing came nearly 18 hours after the stampede and was the first official death toll given by authorities.
Festivities had otherwise been allowed to continue almost as normal during the day, with millions still trekking to the riverbanks to immerse themselves in the water.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi called the stampede “extremely sad” and offered his “deepest condolences” to relatives of those killed. “I wish for the speedy recovery of all injured,” he added.
Dozens of relatives were anxiously waiting for news outside a large tent serving as a purpose-built hospital for the festival near the disaster site.
The six-week Kumbh Mela is the single biggest milestone on the Hindu religious calendar, with more than 400 million devotees from across the world expected to attend.
This year’s festival is a Maha Kumbh Mela, with the prefix “maha” meaning “great”. Maha Kumbh festivals are only held once every 144 years.
Wednesday marked one of the holiest days in the festival, when saffron-clad holy men led millions in a sin-cleansing ritual of bathing at the confluence of the Ganges, Saraswati and Yamuna rivers in tandem with a planetary alignment in the solar system.
Officials had attempted to divert crowds away from the disaster site, instructing them to bathe at other locations.
But, even as news of the stampede spread, crowds pushed through cordons to move towards the river, shrugging off aggressive orders from police to turn back.
Officials from the Uttar Pradesh government, responsible for staging the festival, said about 100 million people had participated in the ritual bathing throughout the day.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath told reporters that medical workers were treating those seriously injured in the crush, adding that the situation was “under control”.
Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi blamed the disaster on poor crowd control that prioritised the comfort of distinguished visitors.
“Mismanagement and the administration’s special focus on VIP movement instead of common devotees are responsible for this tragic incident,” he wrote on social media
Police this year installed hundreds of cameras at the festival site and on roads leading to the sprawling encampment, mounted on poles and a fleet of overhead drones.
The surveillance network feeds into a sophisticated command and control centre meant to alert staff if sections of the crowd get so concentrated that they pose a safety threat.
“If you see advertisements, it seems like the government is providing world-class facilities,” university student Ruchi Bharti told AFP not far from the riverbank. “But this stampede proved that was all a lie.”
A public interest litigation was filed in the Supreme Court on Thursday, alleging “lapses, negligence and utter failure of administration” on the part of the Uttar Pradesh government over the stampede.
The petition, filed by advocate Vishal Tiwari, sought directions from the top court to formulate policies and regulations to prevent such tragedies at large religious gatherings.
Mr Adityanath has ordered a judicial inquiry into the incident.
AFP
