By Saurabh Sharma
LUCKNOW, India (Reuters) – Bodies, clothes and bags lay scattered on the ground after a deadly stampede at the world’s largest gathering of humanity, the Maha Kumbh Mela in northern India, on one of the most auspicious days in Hinduism.
Witnesses described a mass of people rushing to take a pre-dawn dip at the confluence of the three sacred rivers – the Ganga, the Yamuna, and the mythical, invisible Saraswati, at Prayagraj, which Hindus believe absolves them of all sins and frees them from the circle of life and death.
An unnamed official said at least seven people had died and dozens more had been injured in the stampede that took place in the early hours of Wednesday. But there was no confirmation of deaths or injuries from the local government, more than 12 hours after the incident.
“We saw people falling, lying one above another and crushing others to find a safe place. As we went ahead, we saw clothes, bodies of people, their bags, clothes and other belongings littered around,” Shweta Tripathi, a resident of Sant Kabir Nagar in Uttar Pradesh, told Reuters.
“It all happened so fast that I couldn’t process it and started crying. Luckily none from my group was hurt and we are all safe,” she said.
She saw a child and his relative crying next to bodies of their loved ones.
“I don’t think I am coming ever again,” she said.
The Maha Kumbh Mela is the world’s largest congregation of humanity, attracting some 400 million people over its six weeks. By comparison, the Haj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia drew 1.8 million last year.
By Tuesday nearly 200 million people had attended the 2025 festival since it started two weeks ago.
Visuals showed distressed attendees searching for their belongings amid piles of bags, clothes and water bottles thrown around. Some people were seen walking with containers carrying the holy water from the rivers.
Abhishek Kumar, who said he also attended the Mela with a few of his relatives saw people falling because of the crowd that surged to take a dip.
“Some people were returning after taking a dip and others were rushing towards the river. There was absolutely no co-ordination between the two crowds,” he told ABP news channel.
“Some of the women in our group were old and they tripped and fell. People walked over them in their hurry to get out,” he said.
Kumar said it took him and others more than an hour to get to the makeshift hospital near the site of the festival because of the surging crowds.
“From what we could tell, the women we brought here were not breathing, but we don’t know for sure. We just picked them up on our shoulders and ran.”
(Reporting by Saurabh Sharma,writing by Shilpa Jamkhandikar and Tanvi Mehta, Editing by Angus MacSwan)
