On the most auspicious day of a six-week Hindu celebration, tens of millions of people flocked to dip in sacred river waters at the Maha Kumbh Mela in northern India, where a pre-dawn stampede killed dozens of people, according to police sources and a Reuters witness.
More than 12 hours after the catastrophe at the largest human gathering in history, bodies were still being transported to the nearby Moti Lal Nehru Medical College hospital mortuary, however officials had not yet made an official announcement regarding the number of casualties.
According to three police sources who spoke to Reuters, about 40 remains were taken to the mortuary. 39 bodies were tallied inside the mortuary by a Reuters witness. According to a fourth officer and one of the three police sources, all 39 were stampeded. There are more bodies arriving. There are over forty bodies here. One of the informants stated, “We are also moving them out and giving them to families one at a time.”
About half a dozen people were searching the mortuary for their loved ones, and there were fifteen ambulances outside. When contacted for comment, senior police officer Vaibhav Krishna stated that officers were too busy managing crowds to provide the official numbers.
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