Nearly 40 people were feared dead and at least 10 injured in a crowd crush at the Maha Kumbh Mela in northern India, where tens of millions of pilgrims gathered for bathing on the most auspicious day of the six-week Hindu festival.
Drone video showed millions of devotees, shoulder to shoulder, arriving before dawn broke on Wednesday at a temporary township in Prayagraj at the confluence of three rivers, the Ganges, Yamuna, and the mythical, invisible Saraswati.
Video and photos after the crush showed bodies being taken away on stretchers and people sitting on the ground crying, while others stepped over a thick layer of discarded clothes, shoes, backpacks and blankets left as people tried to escape.
Almost 40 bodies were taken to the local Moti Lal Nehru Medical College hospital mortuary, three police sources told news agency Reuters, although the government has yet to officially announce casualty numbers.
“More bodies are coming in. We have nearly 40 bodies here. We are transferring them out as well and handing over to families one by one,” a source said.
Senior police officer Vaibhav Krishna said the force could not give an official number because they were busy with crowd management.
The cause of the crush was unclear. Some witnesses spoke of a huge push that caused devotees to fall upon each other, while others said closure of routes to the water brought the dense crowd to a standstill and caused people to collapse from suffocation.
“There was commotion, everybody started pushing, pulling, climbing over one another. My mother collapsed … then my sister-in-law. People ran over them,” said Jagwanti Devi, 40, as she sat in an ambulance with the bodies of her relatives.
“I saw many people falling and getting walked on by the crowd … many children and women getting lost, crying for help,” said Ravin, a devotee who gave only his first name. He had travelled from India's financial capital of Mumbai for the festival.
A Rapid Action Force – a special unit called in during crisis situations – was sent to bring the situation under control and undertake rescue efforts, officials said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and gave “directions for normalisation of the situation and relief”, said Indian news agency ANI.
Mr Adityanath appealed to people to take a dip at the nearest riverbank rather than trying to reach the confluence, which is believed to absolve devotees of their sins and confer salvation from the cycle of birth and death.
“All of you should follow the instructions of the administration and co-operate in making arrangements,” he said on X, as people continued to bathe in other parts of the sprawling temporary city.
The world's largest congregation of people, the Hindu festival has already hosted gigantic daily crowds, with nearly 148 million people attending since it began two weeks ago.
They ranged from Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Home Minister Amit Shah to Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani and celebrities such as Coldplay's Chris Martin and actress Dakota Johnson, whom Indian media reported had reached Prayagraj on Tuesday. Mr Modi was also expected to visit the festival next month.
Authorities had expected a record 100 million people to throng the temporary township in Prayagraj on Wednesday for the event, considered the most auspicious day due to an alignment of celestial bodies for the first time in 144 years.
Authorities had undertaken several measures to cater to the enormous crowd, including increased security and medical personnel, and special trains and buses. AI software was also used to manage the numbers.
A similar crush broke out on the most auspicious day of the festival when it was last held in 2013, resulting in the deaths of at least 36 pilgrims.