Multiple people feared dead in crowd crush at India’s Kumbh Mela religious festival

 By Manveena Suri and Helen Regan, CNN, Jan.29: Multiple people were feared dead in a crowd crush at the world’s largest religious gathering in India on Wednesday, as tens of millions of devotees went to bathe in a river on one of the most sacred days of a Hindu festival.

The crush at the Maha Kumbh Mela in the city of Prayagraj occurred after a barrier broke, according to Akanksha Rana, special executive officer for the festival.

Indian authorities have not confirmed the number of casualties. Rana said early Wednesday that “several people” had been injured and taken to hospital but that officials were still assessing the extent of the damage.

Reuters and local media reported witnesses seeing several dead bodies near the river bank where the incident occurred, and photos from Reuters showed bodies being carried from the site on stretchers.

Video by the news agency showed ambulances racing through huge crowds of people and casualties being brought to a nearby hospital. Security personnel could be seen helping devotees as scattered blankets and belongings lay strewn on the ground.

Speaking to local media, devotees said the incident took place around 1:30 a.m. local time and described chaotic scenes with people running in different directions and others falling over. Witnesses said families were separated in the surge of people and some remain missing.

“Suddenly, there was a huge crowd and we got stuck somehow. People started pushing aggressively and we fell,” one woman told local media from outside the hospital.

The incident occurred as about 100 million Hindu devotees from around the world were expected to visit the site on Wednesday and take a holy dip in the sacred waters in India’s northern state of Uttar Pradesh, according to local media reports.

Wednesday marks Mauni Amavasya, one of the most significant days of the Maha Kumbh Mela festival, when followers come to bathe in the Triveni Sangam, the confluence of three holy rivers – the Ganges, Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati – to purify their sins and take another step closer to “spiritual liberation.”

Drone footage shared by Reuters showed huge numbers of people already arriving at the site in the early hours.

The festival is considered the world’s largest peaceful gathering of people. Over six weeks, a staggering 400 million people are expected to attend the Maha Kumbh Mela, or the festival of the Sacred Pitcher, on the banks of Prayagraj.

The office of the state’s chief minister Yogi Adityanath told devotees on Wednesday to avoid bathing at the sangam, where the rivers meet, and instead take dips at points along the river closest to them.

Security measures scaled up ahead of festival

Crowd crushes at religious gatherings in India are not uncommon, and deadly incidents have occurred in the past, often highlighting a lack of adequate crowd control and safety measures. In 2013, dozens of people were killed and injured in a crowd crush at a railway station in Allahabad as pilgrims gathered for that year’s Kumbh Mela.

Ahead of the festival in Prayagraj, officials said extra safety measures had been put in place to protect visitors, including a security ring with checkpoints around the city staffed by more than 1,000 police officers.

The central government said over 2,700 security cameras powered by artificial intelligence would also be positioned around the city, monitored by hundreds of experts at key locations.

Aerial drones were touted to provide surveillance from above and, for the first time, underwater drones capable of diving up to 100 meters were being activated to provide round-the-clock cover, the government added.

Security personnel at the site of the crowd crush in Prayagraj. Arun Sankar/AFP/Getty Images

The gathering is particularly well known for attracting large crowds of Hindu holy men, known as sadhus, who travel from across the country.

Every 12 years the festival carries the prefix “Maha,” which means great, as it’s the largest gathering of the Kumbh Mela that’s held every three years in one of four cities. This year, the festival carries greater significance due to a rare alignment of celestial bodies that happens every 144 years.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

CNN’s Aishwarya S Iyer contributed reporting.