(29 Jan 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Prayagraj, 29 January 2025
1. Pan of police personnel guarding items left by pilgrims during the stampede
2. Various of pilgrims looking for their belongings where the stampede took place
3. Helicopter flies over the Maha Kumbh festival area
4. Pilgrims in water
5. Helicopter flying away over the Maha Kumbh festival area
STORYLINE:
Several people were feared dead and many more injured in a stampede early Wednesday as tens of thousands of Hindus rushed to take a holy bath in the river at the massive Maha Kumbh festival in northern India ‘s Prayagraj city, local media reported.
People’s belongings including clothes, blankets and backpacks were strewn around the scene of the stampede. It was not immediately clear what caused the panic or how many people had been hurt. Some local news websites said 10 people had died.
Wednesday was a sacred day during the six-week festival, and authorities were expecting a record 100 million devotees to engage in a ritual bath at the confluence of the Ganges, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati rivers. The ritualistic bathing’s main draw are thousands of ash-smeared Hindu ascetics who arrive in massive processions towards the confluence to take a holy dip in the waters.
After the incident, millions of Hindu pilgrims continued to throng the site to bathe even as police officials urged them over megaphones to keep away.
The Maha Kumbh festival, held every 12 years, started on January 13 and is the world’s largest religious gathering. Authorities expect over 400 million people to throng the pilgrimage site in total.
Hindus believe that a dip at the confluence of three rivers — two worldly and one mythical — will cleanse them of their past sins and end their process of reincarnation.
Indian authorities have touted the festival as the world’s largest religious gathering.
AP video shot by Deepak Sharma
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