30 dead, 90 injured in stampede at Hindu festival Kumbh Mela

Indian police said Wednesday that 30 people had been killed and 90 injured in an early morning stampede at the Kumbh Mela, a Hindu mega-festival in the northern city of Prayagraj.

“Thirty devotees have unfortunately died,” senior police officer Vaibhav Krishna told a news conference.

“Ninety injured were taken to the hospital,” Krishna added.

Deadly crowd incidents are common at Indian religious festivals, including the Kumbh Mela, which 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 were trampled by the crowd.

Holy men leading millions in ritual

Meanwhile, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called the stampede “extremely sad” and expressed condolences to the victims’ families.

“I wish for the speedy recovery of all injured,” Modi said.

Relatives anxiously awaited news outside a tent-turned-hospital near the disaster site.

The six-week Kumbh Mela is the largest event on the Hindu religious calendar. Wednesday marked one of its holiest days, with saffron-clad holy men leading millions in ritual bathing at the confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers.

In 1954, over 400 people died in a Kumbh Mela stampede. Another 36 were crushed to death in 2013, the last time the festival was held in Prayagraj.