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NEW DELHI: At least 30 people were killed in crowd crushes at India’s Maha Kumbh Mela festival on Wednesday morning, local police said, as tens of millions of worshippers gathered to take a holy dip in the Ganges.

Hindu devotees have been arriving in Prayagraj in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh since Jan. 13 for the celebrations that some 400 million people are expected to attend by the end of February.

When worshippers gathered on Tuesday evening to cleanse themselves of sins by bathing in the confluence of the Ganges, Yamuna and mythical Saraswati rivers, their numbers swelled.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath told the local media that up to 100 million people were going to attend the ritual.

As people rushed to take the holy dip before dawn, some people were sleeping on the riverbank, as others pushed to reach the river and trampled on them.

“About 90 people were taken to the hospital through ambulances but unfortunately, 30 devotees have died. Out of these 30, 25 have been identified and the rest are yet to be identified,” Uttar Pradesh Deputy Inspector General Vaibhav Krishna said in a press conference.

Local reporters present at the site have counted over a dozen bodies, but the actual toll is believed to be much higher.

“Since 2 a.m. in the morning, ambulances have been moving. That means what has happened is really not small. I have seen people crying and wailing after getting separated from their near and dear ones,” Vivek Kumar, a Prayagraj-based journalist, told Arab News.

Another witness, Vishu Vinod Shukla, said that people at the site still could not find their family members. Many were seen crying outside the mortuary of one of Prayagraj’s hospitals.

“I have returned from the site of the incident. The scene was disturbing. I have seen huge piles of torn clothes, abandoned shoes and slippers, blankets, combs. There are a lot of abandoned things lying there,” he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi acknowledged the deaths in a social media post and conveyed his “deepest condolences to the devotees who have lost their loved ones.” 

While the Uttar Pradesh administration did not respond to requests for comment, Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi decried “mismanagement” by the local authorities as being responsible for the deaths.

The Kumbh Mela pilgrimage takes place every 12 years and is widely seen as the “festival of festivals” in the Hindu religious calendar. This year, the celebration is particularly significant, referred to as “maha” or “grand.”

The world’s biggest religious gathering, Maha Kumbh Mela takes place only every 144 years, marking a special celestial alignment of the sun, moon, Jupiter and Saturn.

Deadly crowd crushes at the festival are not new. In 2013, a stampede broke out at the train station in Prayagraj — then still known as Allahabad — killing 42 people and injuring dozens of others.

In 1986, at least 200 were killed in a stampede during the Kumbh Mela in Haridwar. In 1954, 800 people were trampled to death during the first-ever Kumbh held after India’s independence.