The China Mail - 15 dead in India stampede at Hindu mega-festival

Deadly crowd crushes are a notorious feature of Indian religious festivals and the Kumbh Mela, with its unfathomable throngs of devotees, already had a grim track record before the latest incident in the early hours of the morning.

The six-week festival is the single biggest milestone on the Hindu religious calendar, and millions of people had been expected to participate in a sacred day of ritual bathing on Wednesday.

"At least 15 people have died for now. Others are being treated," said the doctor at the festival site in Prayagraj, speaking on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to talk to media.

Rescue teams were seen working with pilgrims to carry victims away from the site of the accident over ground strewn with clothes, shoes and other discarded belongings.

Police officers moved through the area 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 one kilometre (half a mile) from the accident.

Wednesday marks one of the holiest days in the festival, when saffron-clad holy men were due to lead millions into a procession of sin-cleansing ritual bathing at the confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers.

But instead officials were strolling the festival site with loudhailers urging pilgrims to keep away from the waterways.

"We humbily request all devotees do not come to the main bathing spot," said one festival staffer, his voice crackling through his megaphone.

"Please cooperate with security personnel."

Numerous pilgrims decided to make an early exit from the festival.

"I heard the news and saw the bathing site," attendee Sanjay Nishad told AFP.

"My family got scared, so we're leaving."

- 'Many people were crushed' -

Local government official Akanksha Rana told the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency that the stampede began after the collapse of some crowd control barriers.

Pilgrim Malti Pandey told AFP that he was on his way to bathe in the river along a barricaded walking route when the stampede began.

"Suddenly a crowed started pushing and many people were crushed," the 42-year-old said.

The Kumbh Mela is rooted in Hindu mythology, a battle between deities and demons for control of a pitcher containing the nectar of immortality.

Organisers have likened the scale of this year's festival to that of a temporary country, forecasting up to 400 million pilgrims to visit before the final day on February 26.

Mindful of the risk of deadly crowd accidents, police this year installed hundreds of cameras at the festival site and on roads leading to the sprawling encampment, mounted on poles and a fleet of overhead drones.

The surveillance network is fed into a sophisticated command and control centre that is meant to alert staff if sections of the crowd get so concentrated that they pose a safety threat.

More than 400 people died after being trampled or drowned at the Kumbh Mela on a single day of the festival in 1954, one of the largest tolls in a crowd-related disaster globally.

Another 36 people were crushed to death in 2013, the last time the festival was staged in the northern city of Prayagraj.

F.Brown--ThChM