At least 30 people have been killed and a further 60 injured in multiple crowd rushes at Kumbh Mela festival in India, authorities have announced, with witnesses unable to locate family members.
Tens of millions flocked to the Hindu pilgrimage festival last night to bathe in the Ganges, Yamuna, and Saraswati rivers.
While the official death toll stands at 30, a Reuters witness counted 39 bodies inside a hospital morgue.
Two men who were visiting say that they were able to get away in time, but they were separated from the two people they were travelling with.
The men have searched the area, and hospital officials have not been able to find them.
Another woman says she is looking for her daughter-in-law, who went missing when they were in the river.
Officials in India’s Uttar Pradesh state on the deadly crowd crush at Kumbh Mela say that between 01:00 and 02:00 local time, a crowd on Akhada Road broke through barricades, trampling devotees waiting to enter the river.
A rescue operation was launched, with the injured people taken to hospital.
An injured man recounted the moment he was pushed into the Ganges to the BBC: “”My bag, scarf, sweater, everything got washed away with the water.”
He went on to describe multiple pains, including a pain in his chest from people walking over him.
More details to come.
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