PRAYAGRAJ, India: The death toll from a stampede at the Maha Kumbh Mela in northern India has surged to 40, police said on Wednesday, as millions of devotees gathered for a ritual dip in the Hindu holy river on the most auspicious day of the six-week Hindu festival.
Bodies continued to be brought to the morgue at the local Moti Lal Nehru Medical College hospital, more than 12 hours after the tragedy at the world’s largest gathering of people. According to police 39 bodies are in the morgue.
“More bodies are coming in. We have nearly 40 bodies here. We are transferring them out as well and handing them over to families one by one,” one of the sources told Reuters news agency.
Grief-stricken relatives lined up to identify the victims of the stampede, which happened as crowds surged toward the confluence of three rivers, a site considered especially sacred for immersion.
According to some witnesses, a huge push caused devotees to fall on each other, while others said the closure of routes to the water caused people to collapse due to suffocation.
“There was a commotion, everybody started pushing, pulling, climbing over one another. My mother collapsed…then my sister-in-law. People ran over them,” said Jagwanti Devi, 40, as she sat in an ambulance with the bodies of her relatives.
Saroja, who had travelled for the festival from the southern city of Belagavi blamed police for the deaths of four members of her family.
“Police didn’t make proper arrangements. They are responsible for this,” she wailed. Police have said they are doing all they can to manage the vast crowds.
An official at Prayagraj’s SRN Hospital, where some of the wounded were brought, said those who died had either suffered heart attacks or had comorbidities like diabetes.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered condolences to “devotees who have lost their loved ones”, without specifying the number of dead.
Yogi Adityanath, chief minister of Uttar Pradesh state where the festival city of Prayagraj is located, said the stampede started when some of the devotees tried to jump barricades put up to manage crowds.
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Officials estimate that the Hindu festival will attract around 400 million people. By Tuesday, nearly 200 million people had participated in the festival since it began two weeks ago.
On Wednesday alone, over 57 million people had taken a holy dip. Devout Hindus believe that bathing at the confluence of the Ganga, Yamuna, and the mythical Saraswati rivers clears them of sins and brings salvation from the cycle of life and death.
Opposition parties blamed the mismanagement of the government for the stampede. “VIP culture should be curbed and the government should make better arrangements to meet the needs of common devotees,” Rahul Gandhi, leader of the main opposition Congress party, said on X, referring to politicians and celebrities being treated differently.
A similar stampede in 2013 during the most auspicious day of the festival had killed at least 36 pilgrims.
