At least 18 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, officials and reports said.
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.
Deputy medical superintendent of Lok Nayak Hospital in New Delhi, Ritu Saxena told newsmen that she confirmed 15 deaths at the hospital without any open injury like to be hypoxia or maybe some blunt injury but that would only be confirmed after an autopsy.
An official of another hospital in the city also announced that three people died from the stampede adding that those dead were mostly women and children.
Railways minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said a high-level inquiry had been ordered into the causes of the accident.
Vaishnaw said additional special trains were being run from New Delhi to clear the rush of devotees.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was distressed by the stampede.
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.