NEW DELHI (AFP): At least 15 people died during a stampede at a railway station in India's capital late Saturday when surging crowds scrambled to catch trains to the world's largest religious gathering, a medical official told AFP.
The Kumbh Mela attracts tens of millions of Hindu faithful every 12 years to the northern city of Prayagraj, and has a history of crowd-related disasters -- including one last month, when at least 30 people died in another stampede at the holy confluence of the Ganges, Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati rivers.
The rush at the train station in New Delhi appeared to break out Saturday as crowds struggled to board trains for the ongoing event, which will end on February 26.
"I can confirm 15 deaths at the hospital. They don't have any open injury. Most (likely died from) hypoxia or maybe some blunt injury but that would only be confirmed after an autopsy," Dr Ritu Saxena, deputy medical superintendent of Lok Nayak Hospital in New Delhi told AFP.
"There are also 11 others who are injured. Most of them are stable and have orthopaedic injuries," she said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was "distressed" by the stampede.
"My thoughts are with all those who have lost their loved ones. I pray that the injured have a speedy recovery," he continued in a post on X.
The governor of the capital territory Delhi, Vinai Kumar Saxena said disaster management personnel had been told to deploy and "all hospitals are in readiness to address related exigencies."
Railways minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said additional special trains were being run from New Delhi to clear the rush of devotees.
The six-week Kumbh Mela is the single biggest milestone on the Hindu religious calendar, and officials said around 500 million devotees have already visited the festival since it began last month.
More than 400 people died after they were trampled or drowned 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 Prayagraj. - AFP
