Stampede at Maha Kumbh Mela in India claims 30 lives
Listen to article
At least 30 people were killed and many more injured in a tragic stampede during the Maha Kumbh Mela in northern India on Wednesday, the world's largest religious gathering.
Police reported that 60 others were rushed to hospitals following the incident in Prayagraj city, which occurred as millions of Hindu pilgrims gathered to take part in a sacred ritual bath at the confluence of the Ganges, Yamuna, and mythical Saraswati rivers.
Wednesday was an important day in the six-week Hindu festival, with authorities expecting up to 100 million devotees to participate in the ritual as Hindus believe that a dip in the holy waters can cleanse them of past sins and help end the cycle of reincarnation.
The stampede took place when pilgrims, eager to participate, tried to jump over barricades put up for a procession of holy men, causing a surge in the crowd, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said.
The main attraction of the festival is the procession of thousands of ash-smeared Hindu ascetics, which draws large crowds.
Photo: AFP
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, acknowledging the loss of lives, expressed his condolences and called the incident "extremely sad." However, authorities delayed releasing casualty figures for over 16 hours.
Survivor testimonies, including one from a pilgrim named Sarojini, described how the crowd suddenly turned chaotic.
'Suddenly there was pushing in the crowd, and we got trapped. A lot of us fell down and the crowd went uncontrolled,' Sarojini said. 'There was no chance for escape, there was pushing from all sides.'
As authorities worked to control the situation, distressed families lined up outside a makeshift hospital, desperately seeking news of their missing loved ones where clothes, backpacks, and blankets were scattered around the stampede site.
Despite the tragedy, millions continued to crowd the 4,000-hectare pilgrimage site, even as police urged them over megaphones to avoid the confluence.
Uttar Pradesh's top official Adityanath urged pilgrims to bathe at other riverbanks instead. At 8 am on Wednesday, 30 million pilgrims had already completed the holy bath.
Adityanath confirmed that the situation was under control, but warned that the crowd was still massive, with an estimated 90 million to 100 million people at the site.
The Maha Kumbh festival, which began on January 13 and is held every 12 years, is expected to see more than 400 million people attend in total.
Devotees stopped by policemen at a barricade following the crowd crush. Photo: Reuters
Nearly 150 million have already participated, including prominent politicians like Defense Minister Rajnath Singh and Home Minister Amit Shah, as well as international celebrities like Coldplay's Chris Martin.
In response to the large crowds, a sprawling tent city has been set up along the riverbanks to accommodate the millions of visitors, with roads, electricity, water, 3,000 kitchens, and 11 hospitals.
Authorities have also stationed 50,000 security personnel at the site and installed more than 2,500 cameras to monitor crowd movement.
However, opposition leaders criticized both the federal and state government, both led by Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, for what they called "mismanagement" and "VIP culture."
Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi took to social media, urging the government to improve arrangements for common pilgrims.
The 45-day Maha Kumbh festival is a significant cultural and religious event for India's Hindus, who make up nearly 80% of the country's population.
Hours after the crowd crush, devotees gather at the banks of the Sangam. Photo: AFP
It also serves as a prestige event for Modi's government, which has promoted Hindu cultural symbols.
Unfortunately, this is not the first time the festival has witnessed such a tragedy as in 2013, at least 40 pilgrims were killed in a stampede at a train station during the same event.
Deadly stampedes are a recurring issue at religious gatherings in India, where large crowds often converge in small, confined spaces.
In July, a similar incident occurred in Hathras town, where 116 people, mostly women and children, lost their lives in a stampede at a religious gathering.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Express Tribune
3 hours ago
- Express Tribune
Day of the Jackal' author Frederick Forsyth dies at 86
A pilot who turned to writing to clear his debts, British author Frederick Forsyth, who died Monday aged 86, penned some 20 spy novels, often drawing on real-life experiences and selling 70 million copies worldwide. In such bestsellers as The Day of the Jackal and The Odessa File, Forsyth honed a distinctive style of deeply researched and precise espionage thrillers involving power games between mercenaries, spies and scoundrels. For inspiration he drew on his own globe-trotting life, including an early stint as a foreign correspondent and assisting Britain's spy service on missions in Nigeria, South Africa, and the former East Germany and Rhodesia. "The research was the big parallel: as a foreign correspondent you are probing, asking questions, trying to find out what's going on, and probably being lied to," he told The Bookseller magazine in 2015. "Working on a novel is much the same... essentially it's a very extended report about something that never happened — but might have." Dangerous research He wrote his first novel when he was 31, on a break from reporting and in dire need of money to fund his wanderlust. Having returned "from an African war, and stony broke as usual, with no job and no chance of one, I hit on the idea of writing a novel to clear my debts," he said in his autobiography The Outsider: My Life in Intrigue published in 2015. "There are several ways of making quick money, but in the general list, writing a novel rates well below robbing a bank." But Forsyth's foray came good. Taking just 35 days to pen The Day of the Jackal, his story of a fictional assassination attempt on French president Charles de Gaulle by right-wing extremists, met immediate success when it appeared in 1971. The novel was later turned into a film and provided self-styled revolutionary Carlos the Jackal with his nickname. Forsyth went on to write a string of bestsellers including The Odessa File (1972) and The Dogs of War (1974). His eighteenth novel, The Fox, was published in 2018. Forsyth's now classic post-Cold War thrillers drew on drone warfare, rendition and terrorism — and eventually prompted his wife to call for an end to his dangerous research trips. "You're far too old, these places are bloody dangerous and you don't run as avidly, as nimbly as you used to," Sandy Molloy said after his last trip to Somalia in 2013 researching The Kill List, as Forsyth recounted to AFP in 2016. Real-life spy There were also revelations in his autobiography about his links with British intelligence. Forsyth recounted that he was approached in 1968 by "Ronnie" from MI6 who wanted "an asset deep inside the Biafran enclave" in Nigeria, where there was a civil war between 1967 and 1970. While he was there, Forsyth reported on the situation and at the same time kept "Ronnie informed of things that could not, for various reasons, emerge in the media". Then in 1973 Forsyth was asked to conduct a mission for MI6 in communist East Germany. He drove his Triumph convertible to Dresden to receive a package from a Russian colonel in the toilets of the Albertinum museum. The writer claimed he was never paid by MI6 but in return received help with book research, submitting draft pages to ensure he was not divulging sensitive information. Flying dreams In later years Forsyth turned his attention to British politics, penning a regular column in the anti-EU Daily Express newspaper. He also wrote articles on counter-terrorism issues, military affairs and foreign policy. Despite his successful writing career, he admitted in his memoirs it was not his first choice. "As a boy, I was obsessed by aeroplanes and just wanted to be a pilot," he wrote of growing up an only child in Ashford, southern England, where he was born on August 25, 1938. He trained as a Royal Air Force pilot, before joining Reuters news agency in 1961 and later working for the BBC.
Business Recorder
11 hours ago
- Business Recorder
Ukraine says Russian strikes hit Kyiv, Odesa, killing three
KYIV: Russia launched fresh drone and missile attacks on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, and port city of Odesa early on Tuesday, killing three people and hitting a maternity hospital, Ukrainian officials said. Moscow has escalated its bombardments of Ukraine and Kyiv has retaliated with strikes deep inside Russian territory. Talks in Turkey last week failed to yield a breakthrough towards ending the three-year war. Aside from an agreement to exchange prisoners, progress has stalled and Russia has repeatedly rejected calls for an unconditional ceasefire. After the overnight barrage of more than 300 drones and seven missiles, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged Kyiv's Western allies to respond with 'concrete action'. 'Action from America, which has the power to force Russia into peace. Action from Europe, which has no alternative but to be strong,' Zelensky wrote in a post on social media. He added that two of the missiles fired in the latest wave attacks were made in North Korea. Russia fired record 479 drones at Ukraine overnight Russia's defence ministry said it had targeted 'Ukrainian aviation, missile, armoured vehicle and ship-building facilities in Kyiv' with a 'group strike'. 'The goal of the strikes was achieved. All designated objects were hit,' the ministry said. But residential and hospital buildings were struck in Odesa, where two people were killed and at least nine others were wounded, Governor Oleg Kiper said. 'The enemy massively attacked Odesa with strike drones,' Kiper wrote on Telegram. 'The Russians hit a maternity hospital, an emergency medical ward and residential buildings,' he said, adding that the maternity hospital had been evacuated in time. Prisoner swap In central Kyiv, an AFP journalist heard at least a dozen explosions, anti-aircraft fire and the buzzing of drones. City officials said one woman was killed and four people were wounded. The mayor said strikes hit at least seven districts, setting buildings and cars on fire. Russia's 2022 invasion of its neighbour triggered the biggest European conflict since World War II, forcing millions to flee their homes and decimating much of eastern and southern Ukraine. Ukrainian cities are targeted by Russian air strikes almost daily. Russia launched a record 479 explosive drones at Ukraine overnight into Monday morning, the Ukrainian Air Force said. Kyiv has responded with attacks on Russian territory, targeting transport and weapons production infrastructure. Russia's transport agency Rosaviatsia said on Tuesday that flight operations had been temporarily restricted at more than a dozen Russian airports – standard procedure during Ukrainian drone attacks. In the city of Belgorod near the border with Ukraine, Russian emergency services said one person was killed in a Ukrainian drone attack on a petrol station. Russia's defence ministry said it had intercepted 102 Ukrainian drones overnight. Despite pressure from US President Donald Trump to reach a ceasefire agreement, peace talks are at a standstill. The only concrete agreement reached at talks in Istanbul last week was a large-scale prisoner exchange and the repatriation of dead soldiers' bodies. Demands Russia and Ukraine swapped a first group of captured soldiers on Monday and Zelensky announced the exchange would 'continue in several stages over the coming days'. The deal should see the freeing of all captured soldiers under the age of 25, as well as those who are sick or severely wounded. But Zelensky said last week it was 'pointless' to hold further talks with the current Russian delegation – who he previously dismissed as 'empty heads' – since they could not agree to a ceasefire. Russian forces meanwhile are making steady advances across the front line. Over the weekend Moscow said it had pushed its offensive into the Dnipropetrovsk region for the first time, marking a significant territorial escalation. 'Time for everyone to finally accept the fact that Russia understands only strikes, not rational words,' Zelensky's top aide, Andriy Yermak, said on Tuesday, in a thinly veiled criticism of the Trump administration. As a condition for halting its invasion, Russia has demanded that Ukraine cede the territories Moscow says it has annexed and forswear joining NATO. It has also rejected a proposed 30-day unconditional ceasefire sought by Kyiv and the European Union, arguing that this would allow Ukrainian forces to rearm with Western deliveries. Ukraine is demanding a complete Russian withdrawal of from its territory and security guarantees from the West.
Express Tribune
15 hours ago
- Express Tribune
Russia launches massive drone attack on Ukraine, hits Kyiv and Odesa maternity ward
Listen to article Russia launched another prolonged drone attack on Ukraine, killing two people and damaging swathes of Kyiv as well as striking a maternity ward in the southern port of Odesa, officials said early on Tuesday. The overnight strikes followed Russia's biggest drone assault on Ukraine on Monday - part of stepped-up operations that Moscow said were retaliatory measures for Kyiv's recent brazen attacks in Russia. At least four people were hospitalised in the capital as a result of the hours-long attacks that hit seven of the city's 10 districts, city officials said. "You can't break Ukrainians with terror," Andriy Yermak, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's chief of staff, said in a Telegram post after the attacks. Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha called for tougher sanctions on Russia and air defence to strengthen Ukraine following the attack. "Russia rejects any meaningful peace efforts and must face new, devastating sanctions. Already now. There is no more time to wait," he said. Air raid alerts in Kyiv and most Ukrainian regions lasted five hours until around 5 a.m. (0200 GMT), according to military data. "A difficult night for all of us," Timur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv's military district, said on Telegram. "Throughout the night, the enemy relentlessly terrorized Kyiv with attack drones. They targeted civilian infrastructure and peaceful residents of the city." The Kyiv attack sparked fires in residential and non-residential neighbourhoods and open space areas, city officials said. Reuters' witnesses heard and saw countless loud explosions shaking the city and lighting the night sky. Photos and videos posted on Telegram channels showed heavy smoke rising in the early hours of the morning in different parts of Kyiv. The scale of the attack was not immediately known. Moscow has stepped up its attacks on Ukraine following Kyiv's strikes on strategic bombers at air bases inside Russia on June 1. Moscow also blamed Kyiv for bridge explosions on the same day that killed seven and injured scores. The attacks come despite pressure from US President Donald Trump on both sides to move towards a resolution on the war. Moscow and Kyiv returned to negotiations for the first time in more than three years, but outside of an agreement on the exchange of war prisoners, there has been no tangible progress. In addition to swarms of drones and missiles launched in recent days, Russia has also been advancing further on the ground along the frontline in eastern Ukraine, claiming on Tuesday to take more territory there. In the southern port of Odesa, a "massive" overnight drone attack targeted an emergency medical building and a maternity ward, as well as residential buildings, Oleh Kiper, governor of the broader Odesa region, said on Telegram. Two men were killed in the attack, and nine people were injured, according to the Ukrainian prosecutors. Patients and staff were safely evacuated from the maternity hospital, Kiper added. He posted photos of broken windows in what looked like a medical facility and of damage to the facade of several buildings. Both sides deny targeting civilians in the war. But thousands of civilians have been killed in the conflict, the vast majority of them Ukrainian.
