Stampede Kills Dozens At India’s Hindu Festival

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

NEW DELHI (Worthy News) – India’s prime minister expressed condolences Wednesday after dozens of people were killed in a pre-dawn stampede in northern India, where tens of millions of Hindus gathered to take a dip in what they call “sacred river waters.“

Narendra Modi offered his sympathy to “devotees who have lost their loved ones.” He added that local officials were helping victims “in every possible way” without specifying the number of dead.

The tragedy happened on the most auspicious day of the six-week Hindu gathering, Maha Kumbh Mela, or Great Pitcher Festival, in Prayagraj, in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.

State authorities said at least 30 people were killed and 60 were injured in the predawn stampede, but reporters estimated the toll to be nearly 40 based on bodies brought to a morgue.

Held every 12 years, the Maha Kumbh Mela attracts more than 400 million visitors, both Indians and tourists, making it humanity’s largest gathering.

On Monday alone, nearly 15 million Hindus, six times the expected number, dipped in freezing waters to seek “absolution of their sins,” officials said.

In contrast, India’s minority Christians view baptism as an expression of their faith in Christ, in whom all sins have been forgiven.

TRAGEDY FOR INDIA

Wednesday’s tragedy in India, a mainly Hindu nation, was witnessed by many.

As pilgrims rushed to participate in the “sacred day” of ritual bathing, people sleeping and sitting near the rivers said they were trampled by huge swells of devotees rushing towards them in the darkness.

“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,” pilgrim Renu Devi, 48, told reporters.

“When the crowd surged, elderly people and women were crushed, and no one came forward to help.”

Some witnesses spoke of a huge push that caused devotees to fall on each other. Others complained that the closure of routes to the water brought the dense crowd to a standstill and caused people to collapse due to suffocation.

“There was commotion. Everybody started pushing, pulling, and 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.

Rescue teams carrying victims from the accident weaved through piles of clothes, shoes, and other discarded belongings.

POLICE CARRYING BODIES

Police were seen carrying stretchers bearing the bodies of victims draped with thick blankets.

Dozens of relatives were anxiously waiting for news outside a large tent serving as a purpose-built hospital for the festival, around 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) from the accident.

An official at Prayagraj’s SRN Hospital, where some of the injured were taken, told reporters that those who died had either suffered heart attacks or had comorbidities like diabetes.

“People came in with fractures, broken bones… Some collapsed on the spot and were brought dead.”

It was not immediately clear how the tragedy would impact the festival, with millions more expected to arrive.

Crowd control is a significant issue in the world’s most populous nation of nearly 1.5 billion people.

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