What we know so far …
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Dozens of people are feared to have died in crowd crushes at India’s Kumbh Mela festival, local officials at the scene have said, as vast crowds of people went to bathe at one of the holiest sites of the Hindu gathering
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Citing local reports, Associated Press put the death toll at at least ten people. Other local sources put the figure higher. Authorities are expecting 400 million people to attend over the six weeks of the festival
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Shoes and clothes could be seen strewn all over the ground where the crowd crushes happened by the river bank, amid scenes of desperation at nearby makeshift tent hospitals where the injured and dead were initially brought
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In a message, India’s prime minister Narendra Modi offered his “deepest condolences to the devotees who have lost their loved ones” without acknowledging an exact death toll
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Uttar Pradesh state’s top elected official, Yogi Adityanath, said in a televised statement that “The situation is now under control, but there is a massive crowd of pilgrims”
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Wednesday was a sacred day during the six-week festival, and authorities were expecting a record 100 million devotees to engage in a ritual bath at the confluence of the Ganges, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati rivers
Key events
Reporting for the BBC from Prayagraj, Vikas Pandey notes that “tens of thousands of people are still arriving to take a dip at the confluence” despite the earlier crush, which has killed at least ten people according to local reports.
Pandey added that they could see “stricter security measures are in place now.”
India’s defence minister, Rajnath Singh, has also posted a message to social media about the crush, describing the accident as “extremely painful”.
He added “My deepest condolences to the bereaved families of those who have lost their loved ones in this accident. Along with this, I wish for the speedy recovery of all the injured.”
Singh said that local authorities were “providing all possible help to the victims”.
What we know so far …
-
Dozens of people are feared to have died in crowd crushes at India’s Kumbh Mela festival, local officials at the scene have said, as vast crowds of people went to bathe at one of the holiest sites of the Hindu gathering
-
Citing local reports, Associated Press put the death toll at at least ten people. Other local sources put the figure higher. Authorities are expecting 400 million people to attend over the six weeks of the festival
-
Shoes and clothes could be seen strewn all over the ground where the crowd crushes happened by the river bank, amid scenes of desperation at nearby makeshift tent hospitals where the injured and dead were initially brought
-
In a message, India’s prime minister Narendra Modi offered his “deepest condolences to the devotees who have lost their loved ones” without acknowledging an exact death toll
-
Uttar Pradesh state’s top elected official, Yogi Adityanath, said in a televised statement that “The situation is now under control, but there is a massive crowd of pilgrims”
-
Wednesday was a sacred day during the six-week festival, and authorities were expecting a record 100 million devotees to engage in a ritual bath at the confluence of the Ganges, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati rivers
Some more pictures from Kumbh Mela:
The Kumbh Mela, as seen from space:
Donald Pettit, a NASA astronaut, has posted these photos of the world’s largest religious gathering, as seen from space, on his X account.
Prime minister Narendra Modi offers his condolences to Kumbh Mela victims
Indian authorities are yet to release any official death toll of what is believed to be more than one deadly crowd crush in the early hours of Wednesday morning at the world’s largest religious gathering.
But in a statement posted on X, India’s prime minister Modi described the incident as “extremely sad”, and offered his condolences to those who had lost loved ones.
“My deepest condolences to the devotees who have lost their loved ones in this. Along with this, I wish for the speedy recovery of all the injured,” he said, “The local administration is engaged in helping the victims in every possible way. In this regard, I have spoken to chief minister Yogi ji and I am constantly in touch with the state government.”
A look at the scale of this year’s Kumbh Mela:
At least 400 million people — more than the population of the United States — are expected in Prayagraj over the next 45 days, according to officials. That is around 200 times the 2 million pilgrims that arrived in the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia for the annual Hajj pilgrimage last year.
The festival is a big test for Indian authorities to showcase the Hindu religion, tourism and crowd management, writes Associated Press.
A vast ground along the banks of the rivers has been converted into a sprawling tent city equipped with more 3,000 kitchens and 150,000 restrooms. Divided into 25 sections and spreading over 40 square kilometers (15 square miles), the tent city also has housing, roads, electricity and water, communication towers and 11 hospitals. Murals depicting stories from Hindu scriptures are painted on the walls.
Indian Railways is operating more than 90 special trains on nearly 3,300 trips during the festival to transport devotees, beside regular trains.
About 50,000 security personnel – a 50% increase from 2019 – are also stationed in the city to maintain law and order and manage crowds. More than 2,500 cameras, some powered by AI, will send crowd movement and density information to four central control rooms, where officials can quickly deploy personnel to avoid crushes.
Dozens feared dead in crushes at India’s Kumbh Mela religious festival
If you are just tuning into this story, here is a quick recap of what you need to know.
Dozens of people are feared to have died in crowd crushes at India’s Kumbh Mela festival, local officials at the scene have said, as vast crowds of people went to bathe at one of the holiest sites of the Hindu gathering.
People were crushed in the early hours of Wednesday as tens of millions of people flocked to immerse themselves in the sacred confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers, on one of the most auspicious days of the Hindu festival.
The Kumbh Mela, located in northern India, is the world’s largest religious gathering.
According to accounts by devotees, one of the worst crushes occurred after large numbers went down to the river to bathe, while others were sleeping on the floor around the congested riverbank.
As the crowd surged in multiple directions, people began to push their way out and many began to fall to the floor, pushing over barriers and trampling each other. Another crowd crush was reported to have taken place around one of the entrances to the festival.
In the aftermath, multiple bodies were seen lying on the floor around the banks of the river. By mid morning on Wednesday there was still no official confirmation from the police or Uttar Pradesh government on the official fatalities.
The full story by our correspondent, Hannah Ellis Petersen, is here.
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath of Uttar Pradesh gives a statement
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath of Uttar Pradesh, the state in which Prayagraj is located, has appealed to people to take a dip in the Ganges at their nearest ghats and not try to reach the Sangam Nose, according to an official video statement, posted on X.
The chief minister said in the video that some devotees had been seriously injured and taken to hospital, but he did not acknowledge any deaths from Wednesday’s crush.
A video report of the event:
Before Wednesday’s crush, authorities had expected a record 100 million people to throng the temporary township in Prayagraj for the holy dip today, considered the most auspicious day due to a rare alignment of celestial bodies after 144 years.
The location of the Kumbh Mela religious festival, as below.
Scenes from the Kumbh Mela after the crush
Outside a makeshift hospital, anxious relatives await news of their loved ones.
Relatives searching for lost loved-ones.
Authorities are yet to clarify how many people died in Wednesday’s crush, although officials have told the media that more than half a dozen were killed.
“More than seven people have been killed in the stampede and about 10 others injured,” an official who did not want to be named because he was not authorised to speak to the media, told Reuters.
Officials said there had been only one crush which, occurred at about 1am local time. The cause was unclear.
Witnesses said devotees started falling on each other when there was a huge push near the confluence of the three rivers, where a holy dip is considered particularly sacred.
“We had barricades in front of us and police with batons on the other side. The push from behind was very powerful … people started falling,” said Vijay Kumar, who came for the festival from the eastern city of Patna.
“There were people lying all around, I don’t know if they were dead or alive.”
A woman who was part of the crowd but did not give her name also told news agency ANI that she and her mother were among those who fell.
“People kept stepping on us. I am safe but my mother has died,” she said.
Congress leader blames crush on ‘half-baked’ arrangements and ‘mismanagement’
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge sent his condolences to the families of the victims of the crush, and also criticised the way the event has been managed.
“During the Maha Kumbh, the news of stampede on the banks of Teerthraj Sangam in which several people lost their lives and many others got injured is extremely heart-rending,” he said, in a post on X, “Our deepest condolences to the families of the devotees and we wish for the speedy recovery of the injured.”
“Half-baked arrangements, VIP movement, paying more attention to self-promotion than management and mismanagement are responsible for this,” he added, “Despite spending thousands of crores of rupees, such arrangements are condemnable.”
“Arrangements for accommodation, food, first aid and movement of devotees should be expanded and VIP movement should be curbed. This is what our saints and sages also want.”
Major crushes in India over the years:
There have been several deadly crushes in India in the past two decades. Here is a look at those incidents, as compiled by Reuters.
JANUARY 2025: At least six people were killed and 35 injured in a crush near one of India’s busiest and richest temples, in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, after thousands of devout Hindus assembled there to secure free visit passes.
JULY 2024: Around 121 people died after thousands of devotees rushed to get a closer glimpse of a Hindu preacher in the Hathras district of Uttar Pradesh state.
JANUARY 2022: At least 12 people died and more were injured in a crush at the Vaishno Devi shrine in Jammu and Kashmir, after a huge crowd of devotees tried to enter the narrow shrine.
NOVEMBER 2013: Around 115 people were killed and more than a hundred injured after a crush at the Ratangarh temple in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh after more than 150,000 people gathered to celebrate Navratri, a nine-day festival that celebrates the Goddess Durga.
FEBRUARY 2013: At least 36 Hindu pilgrims were killed in a crush on the busiest day of the Kumbh Mela in Uttar Pradesh in 2013. Of the dead, 27 were women, including an eight-year-old girl.
MARCH 2010: At least 63 people, more than half of them children, were killed in a crush triggered by a massive rush for free food and clothes at a Hindu temple in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, media reported.
SEPTEMBER 2008: A total of 250 people were trampled to death at the Chamundagar temple in the northern desert state of Rajasthan as pilgrims gathered to celebrate Navratri.
AUGUST 2008: At the mountaintop Naina Devi temple in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh, about 145 Hindu pilgrims died after rumours of a landslide triggered a crush.
JANUARY 2005: More than 265 Hindu devotees were killed and hundreds more injured after a crush at the Mandhardevi temple in Wai town in the western state of Maharashtra. The crush was caused by slippery steps leading up to the temple, media reported at the time.
Hannah Ellis-Petersen
The Kumbh Mela festival is a series of ritual baths by Hindu sadhus, or holy men, and other pilgrims at the confluence of three sacred rivers.
Hindus believe that the mythical Saraswati river once flowed from the Himalayas through Prayagraj, meeting there with the Ganges and the Yamuna.
Even as dozens are feared dead in today’s crush, millions of pilgrims have continued to bathe.
The official number of people who have taken a bath in the river at Kumbh just today is 17.5 million. The total for the whole festival is around 200 million.
Bathing takes place every day, but on the most auspicious dates, naked, ash-smeared monks charge toward the holy rivers at dawn. Many pilgrims stay for the entire festival, observing austerity, giving alms and bathing at sunrise every day.
“We feel peaceful here and attain salvation from the cycles of life and death,” a pilgrim, Bhagwat Prasad Tiwari, told Associated Press.
Despite warnings not to try to bathe at the sangam – the confluence of holy rivers where the crushes took place this morning – pilgrims are still flooding towards the area. Pictures from the scene show people climbing over barricades to get there.
Hannah Ellis-Petersen
According to Indian media, prime minister Narendra Modi has called the Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath twice since this morning’s incident and called for “immediate measures”.
The Uttar Pradesh government has yet to give an official statement on the incident or confirm the number of dead and injured
