Stampede at Maha Kumbh Mela in India claims 39 lives

Police reported that 60 others were rushed to hospitals following the incident in Prayagraj city.

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Dozens of people were killed and many others injured in a stampede during the Maha Kumbh Mela in northern India on Wednesday, as millions of Hindus gathered to take a dip in sacred river waters on the most auspicious day of the six-week festival.

Authorities confirmed the death toll reached nearly 40, with 39 bodies counted in the morgue of a local hospital.

The stampede took place when crowds surged toward the confluence of the Ganges, Yamuna, and Saraswati rivers, where the ritual bath is considered particularly sacred.

Police reported that at least 90 people were taken to the hospital, 30 of whom later died from heart attacks or injuries sustained in the crush.

Witnesses described a chaotic scene, with people being pushed, pulled, and trampled as the dense crowd surged forward. Some people collapsed due to suffocation, while others were trampled underfoot.

Photo: AFP

Jagwanti Devi, a witness to the disaster, said her relatives collapsed in the chaos, with others running over them. Another attendee, Saroja, blamed the police for the deaths of four family members, accusing them of failing to manage the crowd properly.

State authorities praised the police response for minimizing the impact of the incident.

Senior police officer Vaibhav Krishna said that the swift action by security forces prevented a potentially worse tragedy. In the aftermath, distraught family members waited outside hospitals to identify the victims, and some accused officials of negligence.

A hospital official at Prayagraj’s SRN Hospital said that most of the deceased either suffered heart attacks or were in poor health.

Devotees stopped by policemen at a barricade following the crowd crush. Photo: Reuters

Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered condolences to those who had lost loved ones but did not specify the number of dead.

Uttar Pradesh’s Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath explained that the stampede was triggered by some devotees attempting to jump barricades erected to manage the crowds.

Following the incident, some people sat on the ground, crying, while others stepped over abandoned belongings left by those who had been caught in the crush.

The Maha Kumbh Mela is one of the world’s largest religious gatherings, drawing millions of devotees seeking spiritual cleansing in the sacred river waters.

This year’s festival is expected to draw up to 400 million people, with 200 million already attending since its start. The festival’s most auspicious day, when the stampede occurred, was anticipated to attract over 100 million people, a crowd comparable in scale to the Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.

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.