By Saurabh Sharma and Shivam Patel
PRAYAGRAJ, India (Reuters) -Millions of devout Hindus thronged the northern Indian city of Prayagraj on Thursday for the Maha Kumbh festival, a day after dozens died in a stampede at the largest gathering of humanity in the world.
Train and bus stations in the city saw a surge in crowds as people continued to arrive for the festival, although some devotees remained nervous after the deadly crush.
Krishna Soni, a student from the western state of Rajasthan’s Bikaner city, and his family of eight linked themselves together with string to ensure they would not lose each other in the massive crowd.
“We are walking very carefully and trying to avoid the crowded areas,” he told Reuters.
Police said 30 people were killed in Wednesday’s stampede and 60 were injured. Sources said the death toll was more than 50 and Reuters counted at least 39 bodies in the morgue, but police said not all may have been killed in the stampede.
“Many people die here everyday due to various reasons so those extra dead bodies could have been from other cases… The injured are totally out of danger,” senior police officer Vaibhav Krishna told Reuters.
While authorities said there was just one stampede on Wednesday, witnesses said there had also been a second pre-dawn incident in another part of the festival area on the same morning.
Ambulance driver Karan Kumar told Reuters that police had called him between 3.30 a.m. and 4 a.m. on Wednesday morning and he transported nine people to hospital, who all “looked dead”.
A police guard who did not want to be identified said a second stampede had occurred but “help reached in time” and the situation was contained. Senior police officers did not respond to calls from Reuters seeking comment. Sachchidanand Pandey, spokesperson for Kumbh police chief Rajesh Dwivedi, said there was no second stampede.
ADDITIONAL CROWD CONTROL MEASURES
Authorities have ordered a probe into the incident, which occurred when people surged towards the confluence of three sacred rivers – Ganga, Yamuna, and the mythical Saraswati believed to flow underground – to take a dip.
Harsh Kumar, the retired judge heading the probe panel, told news agency ANI: “We are expected to submit the report within a month,” .
On Wednesday, more than 76 million people took what is called a “royal dip” – taken on days considered more sacred – in the river waters until 8 p.m. (1430 GMT).
Devout Hindus believe taking a dip at the river confluence absolves them of sins, and during the Kumbh also brings salvation from the cycle of birth and death.
Three more “royal dips”, which attract large crowds, are scheduled before the festival ends on Feb. 26.
On Thursday, more than 9 million people took a holy dip by 10 a.m (0430 GMT), officials said, but the situation remained “under control”.
New steps would be taken to prevent such incidents, they said.
“We will be dividing the entire area into many more sectors, which will have additional forces,” Krishna said, adding that devotees would also be requested to go to other banks instead of coming only to the confluence.
The Kumbh Mela – held every 12 years – is expected to draw some 400 million devotees in 2025, officials estimate. The Haj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, in comparison, drew 1.8 million people last year.
Opposition leaders and newspaper editorials have blamed the stampede on mismanagement and called for better crowd planning to prevent such incidents.
The festival is taking place at a 4,000 hectare (9,900 acre) temporary township created for the purpose on the river banks – the size of 7,500 football fields.
Around 150,000 tents have been erected to accommodate devotees along with almost an equal number of toilets.
(Writing by Sakshi Dayal; Editing by Michael Perry, YP Rajesh, Hugh Lawson, Peter Graff)
