Dozens of people were killed in a stampe Reuters The witness said, while dozens of millions gathered to take a dip in the waters of the Sacred River on the most auspicious day of a six -week Hindu festival.
The bodies were still taken to the local morgue of the Moti Lal Nehru Medical College Hospital more than 12 hours after the tragedy in the largest humanity meeting in the world, although the authorities were not yet officially announced the number of victims.
Almost 40 bodies were taken to the morgue, three police sources said. Reuters.
TO Reuters The witness told 39 bodies inside the morgue. One of the three police sources and an official room said the 39 were victims of stampede.
“More bodies are entering. We have almost 40 bodies here. We are also transferring them and giving families one by one, ”said one of the sources.
There were 15 ambulances outside the morgue and approximately half a dozen people looking inside their loved ones.
The senior police officer Vaibhav Krishna said that when he was contacted to comment that the police could not give the official numbers because they were occupied with the management of the crowd.
The anguished relatives queued to identify those killed by the stampede, which occurred when the crowds rose to the confluence of three rivers, where the immersion is considered particularly sacred.
Some witnesses talked about a great impulse that caused the devotees to fall on each other, while others said that the closing of water routes put the dense crowd to a dead point and made people collapse due to suffocation.
“There was shock, everyone began to push, throw, climb one on the other. My mother collapsed … then my sister -in -law. People ran over them, ”said Jagwanti Devi, 40, while satting in an ambulance with the bodies of his relatives.
Saroja, who had traveled for the festival from the southern city of Belagavi and only gave his first name, blamed the police for the death of four members of his family.
“The police did not make the right arrangements. They are responsible for this, ”he cried. Police have said that they are doing everything possible to administer the vast crowds.
An official at the SRN hospital in Prayagraj, where some of the injured were taken, said those who died had suffered heart attacks or had comorbidities such as diabetes.
“People entered with fractures, broken bones … Some collapsed on the spot and were brought dead,” said the official, who did not want to be appointed.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered condolences to “devotees who have lost their loved ones”, without specifying the death toll.
Yogi Adityanath, Prime Minister of Uttar Pradesh, where the city of the Prayagraj festival is located, said the stampede was split when some devotees tried to jump barricades put to handle the crowds.
On the scene after the stampede, some people sat on the floor crying, while others passed the belongings left by those who tried to escape from falling in love.
Opposition parties blame ‘mismanagement’
The Hindu festival is expected to attract about 400 million people in general, according to officials, compared to the pilgrimage of Haj in Saudi Arabia, which attracted 1.8 million last year.
For Tuesday, almost 200 million people had attended the festival since it started two weeks ago, authorities said, and added that more than 57 million people had taken a sacred sauce until 4 pm (3:30 pm PKT) only on Wednesday.
The devout Hindus believe that it is immersed at the confluence of three sacred rivers: the bargain, the yamuna and the mythical and invisible Saraswati, acquits people of sins and, during the kumbh, also brings the salvation of the cycle of life and Death.
This year, the attendees ranged from the Minister of Defense, Rajnath Singh, and Interior Minister, Amit Shah, to the president of the Adani Group, Gautam Adani, and celebrities such as Chris Martin de Coldplay, whom the local media reported arrived in Prayagraj on Tuesday.
Modi was expected to visit the festival next month.
The authorities hoped that a record of 100 million people would crowd the temporary municipality in Prayagraj on Wednesday, and had deployed additional security and medical staff together with AI-Software-based technology to administer the crowd.
A rapid action force (RAF) was deployed, a special police unit called during the crisis, deployed to control the situation after the stampe its processions after reduced devotee numbers.
The television images showed dozens of ascetas, stained in sacred or saffron ashes, advancing towards the confluence while the security personnel and the dense crowds of devotees looked and the helicopters drunk petals from above.
Publications on social networks talked about the congestion of heavy traffic on roads that lead to Prayagraj while the authorities tried to administer to the crowd, leaving several people stranded.
“I planned this trip for more than a year, but I have been caught in traffic for 19 hours,” said American Travel Blogger Drew Binsky on Instagram, where he has more than 1.2 million followers.
The opposition parties blamed the stampede to what they called the “mismanagement” of the government and the “VIP culture”.
“The VIP culture must be slowed and the government should make better arrangements to meet the needs of common devotees,” said Rahul Gandhi, leader of the main party of the opposition Congress, in X, referring to politicians and celebrities treated as different way.
A similar stampery on the most auspicious day of the festival when it was last held in 2013 had killed at least 36 pilgrims.
