At least 30 people have been killed and many more were injured in a stampede at the world’s largest religious gathering in India, police said.
The tragedy took place as millions of pilgrims rushed to dip in sacred waters during the Maha Kumbh festival in the north of the country.
Wednesday is a sacred day in the six-week Hindu festival, and authorities expected a record 100 million devotees to engage in a ritual bath at the confluence of the Ganges, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati rivers.
Hindus believe that a dip at the holy site can cleanse them of past sins and end the process of reincarnation.
The event’s main draw is the thousands of ash-smeared Hindu ascetics who make massive processions toward the confluence to bathe.
Indian authorities took more than 16 hours to release casualty figures, even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi acknowledged the loss of lives, calling the incident “extremely sad” and extending his condolences.
“Suddenly there was pushing in the crowd, and we got trapped. A lot of us fell down and the crowd went uncontrolled,” the Press Trust of India news agency quoted pilgrim Sarojini as saying.
Distressed families lined up outside a makeshift hospital, desperate for news of missing loved ones. Clothes, blankets and backpacks were strewn around the site of the stampede.
Millions continued to throng the 4,000-hectare (15-square mile) pilgrimage site despite the stampede, even as police urged them over megaphones to avoid the confluence. Mr Adityanath urged people to take baths at other riverbanks instead.
“The situation is now under control, but there is a massive crowd of pilgrims,” Mr Adityanath said, adding that 90 million to 100 million pilgrims were at the site.
About 30 million people had taken the holy bath by 8am local time on Wednesday, he said.
Authorities expect more than 400 million people to throng the pilgrimage site in total. Nearly 150 million people have already attended, including Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Home Minister Amit Shah and celebrities like Coldplay’s Chris Martin.
A sprawling tent city has been built on the riverbanks to accommodate the millions of visitors, with roads, electricity and water, 3,000 kitchens and 11 hospitals.
About 50,000 security personnel are stationed in the city to maintain law and order and manage crowds, and more than 2,500 cameras monitor crowd movement and density so officials can try to prevent such crushes.
Several opposition leaders criticized the federal and the state government, both led by Mr Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party, and blamed the stampede on “mismanagement” and “VIP culture” — the latter referring to what they say is preferential treatment for politicians and celebrities.
The 45-day festival is a significant cultural event for India’s Hindus, who make up nearly 80% of the country’s more than 1.4 billion people. It is also a prestige event for Mr Modi, whose ruling party boasts of promoting Hindu cultural symbols.
The Maha Kumbh festival has had stampedes in the past. In 2013, at least 40 pilgrims who were taking part in the festival were killed in a stampede at a train station in Prayagraj.
Deadly stampedes are relatively common around Indian religious festivals, where large crowds gather in small areas.
In July at least 116 people died, most of them women and children, when thousands at a religious gathering in northern India stampeded at a tent camp in Hathras town.
