Several people have been killed with many more injured after a deadly crowd crush at the world’s largest religious gathering at the Mahakumbh Mela in northern India’s Prayagraj city.

Yogi Adityanath, chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, the state in which Prayagraj is located, said on Wednesday morning that the crush occurred after pilgrims rushed to participate in an early morning bathing ritual, jumping over barricades aimed at controlling crowds during the event.

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Near the river, pilgrim Renu Devi, 48, told the AFP news agency that they were sitting near a barricade during the incident, and the “entire crowd fell on top of me, trampling me as it moved forward”.

“When the crowd surged, elderly people and women were crushed, and no one came forward to help,” Devi added.

According to Adityanath, by 8am local time on Wednesday, about 30 million people had taken a holy dip.

Here’s everything we know about the crowd crush:

What happened?

Witnesses told the Reuters news agency that there was a huge push near the three rivers that are considered holy, which caused the worshippers to fall on each other at 1am (19:30 GMT).

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Vijay Kumar, who attended the festival, told Reuters after the incident, “There were people lying all around, I don’t know if they were dead or alive.”

An unnamed woman who was part of the crowd told the Indian news agency, ANI, that people “kept stepping” on her and her mother when they fell in the crush.

“I am safe, but my mother has died,” she said.

So far, authorities have not yet confirmed the death toll, but local media has reported that at least 10 people have been killed.

What is the holy ceremony?

The Kumbh Mela, which translates as the “Festival of the Sacred Pitcher”, is the world’s largest religious festival.

According to local officials, up to 400 million people are expected to take part in the six-week-long event.

The festival, a confluence of spirituality and astrology, is celebrated in a 12-year cycle at four sacred sites. There are six auspicious days within the six weeks, but the four most important are January 14, January 29, February 3, and February 26.

Devotees believe that taking a dip in Prayagraj, where three rivers considered sacred in Hinduism – the Ganges, the Yamuna, and the mythical Saraswati – meet, will absolve them of sins and liberate them from the cycle of life and death.

By rotation, the ceremony is held every four years in the cities of Prayagraj, Haridwar, Ujjain and Nasik. For the current event, Prayagraj has built a tent city with electricity, water, 3,000 kitchens and 11 hospitals to accommodate visitors.

Police have also installed hundreds of cameras on the festival site and roads, which are meant to alert staff if the crowds become so large that they pose a safety threat.

Have major public figures performed the bathing ceremony?

Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Home Minister Amit Shah have taken dips in the Ganges in recent days. Indian billionaire and founder of the Adani Group, Gautam Adani, has also attended.

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According to local media, Coldplay’s lead singer, Chris Martin, and his girlfriend, actress Dakota Johnson, are also visiting the Kumbh Mela.

What has been the response to the stampede?

On Wednesday morning, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on X that the accident was “extremely sad”.

“My deepest condolences to the devotees who have lost their loved ones in this. Along with this, I wish for the speedy recovery of all the injured. The local administration is engaged in helping the victims in every possible way,” he wrote.

Local officials said paramilitary forces had been deployed to control the situation, and rescue efforts were under way.

While opposition leader Rahul Gandhi expressed his condolences to those who lost loved ones during that stampede, he blamed what he called “VIP culture” during the rituals for the incident.

“Mismanagement, mismanagement and administration’s special focus on VIP movement instead of common devotees are responsible for this tragic incident,” Gandhi wrote on X.

“VIP culture should be curbed and the government should make better arrangements to meet the needs of common devotees,” he added.

Has this happened before?

Yes, in 2013, the last time the festival was hosted in Prayagraj, at least 36 people were killed in a crowd crush at a railway station.

That same year, at least 115 people were killed in a crush at the Ratangarh temple in Madhya Pradesh after a bridge collapsed.

In 2008, 145 people died after a panicked crowd pushed people over a ravine near the Himalayan temple of Naina Devi.

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