At least 7 reported killed in crush at India’s Mahakumbh religious festival
The crowd crush occurred at the world’s largest religious event, attended by hundreds of millions of people.
More than seven people – and possibly as many as 15 – have been killed, and many more injured, in a crowd crush at the world’s largest religious festival in northern India, according to reports.
Witnesses counted several bodies, and a doctor at the festival site in the city of Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh told the AFP news agency that 15 people were killed in the crush near a river bank early on Wednesday morning.
“More than seven people have been killed in the stampede, and around 10 others injured,” an official, who did not want to be named because he was not authorised to speak to the media, told the Reuters news agency.
Footage of rescue teams carrying victims away from the religious site showed clothes, shoes and other discarded belongings strewn all over the ground, as police officers carried stretchers bearing the bodies of victims draped with blankets to waiting ambulances.
The final death toll is yet to be confirmed and relatives of injured victims were anxiously waiting for news outside a large tent serving as a purpose-built hospital for the festival approximately a kilometre (half a mile) from the accident site.
A Rapid Action Force (RAF) – a special unit called in during crises – had been deployed to the area to bring the situation under control, and rescue efforts were under way, officials said.
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and gave “directions for normalisation of the situation and relief”, the ANI news agency reports.
The Mahakumbh Mela, or Great Pitcher Festival, is the single biggest milestone on the Hindu religious calendar, and up to