15 dead in India stampede at Hindu mega-festival
A stampede at the world's largest religious gathering killed at least 15 people with many more injured, a doctor at the Kumbh Mela festival in northern India told AFP Wednesday.
Deadly crowd accidents are frequent occurrences at Indian religious festivals, including the Kumbh Mela, which attracts throngs of devotees every 12 years to the city of Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh.
The six-week festival is the single biggest milestone on the Hindu religious calendar, and millions of people had travelled there to take a dip in the confluence of holy rivers.
Pilgrim Renu Devi, 48, told AFP that a huge crowd was moving down a promenade to reach the rivers abutting the festival site. "I was sitting near a barricade, and during the pushing and shoving, the entire crowd fell on top of me, trampling me as it moved forward," she added.
"When the crowd surged, elderly people and women were crushed, and no one came forward to help." Rescue teams working with pilgrims to carry victims from the accident site weaved through piles of clothes, shoes, and other discarded belongings. Police were seen carrying stretchers bearing the bodies of victims draped with thick blankets.
"At least 15 people" were killed, a doctor at a hospital tending to survivors told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to talk to the media. Authorities have yet to officially confirm any deaths in the stampede, which took place around 1:00 am (1930 GMT Tuesday).
- 'Please cooperate' - Dozens of relatives were anxiously waiting for news outside a large tent serving as a purpose-built hospital for the festival around one kilometer (half a mile) from the accident.
Wednesday marks one of the holiest days in the festival when saffron-clad holy men lead millions in a procession of sin-cleansing ritual bathing at the confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers.
Instead, officials were strolling the festival with loudhailers pleading with pilgrims to keep away from the disaster site and bathe at other sections of the river. "We humbly request all devotees do not come to the main bathing spot," said one festival staffer, his voice crackling through his megaphone. "Please cooperate with security personnel." The Uttar Pradesh state government said that millions had already bathed in the waterways between midnight and the early morning.
"It's difficult to control such a huge number," Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
Railway official Manish Kumar said numerous special train services scheduled to transport pilgrims had been halted due to massive crowding at Prayagraj.
Some devotees decided to make an early exit from the city. "I heard the news and saw the bathing site," attendee Sanjay Nishad told AFP.
"My family got scared, so we're leaving."
- 'Many people were crushed' - The Kumbh Mela is rooted in Hindu mythology, a battle between deities and demons for control of a pitcher containing the nectar of immortality.
Organizers have likened the scale of this year's festival to that of a temporary country, forecasting up to 400 million pilgrims would visit before the final day on February 26.
Mindful of the risk of deadly crowd accidents, police this year installed hundreds of cameras at the festival site and on roads leading to the sprawling encampment, mounted on poles and a fleet of overhead drones.
The surveillance network is fed into a sophisticated command and control center that is meant to alert staff if sections of the crowd get so concentrated that they pose a safety threat.
More than 400 people died after they were trampled or drowned at the Kumbh Mela on a single day of the festival in 1954, one of the largest tolls in a crowd-related disaster globally. Another 36 people were crushed to death in 2013, the last time the festival was staged in the northern city of Prayagraj.
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