A look at stampedes and crowd disasters in India over the years
A look at stampedes and crowd disasters in India over the years
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Several people are feared dead and many more injured as tens of thousands of Hindus rushed to bathe in a sacred river at the massive Maha Kumbh festival in India. Wednesday was a holy day in the six-week festival, which started on Jan. 13, and authorities were expecting a record 100 million devotees to engage in ritual bathing at the confluence of the Ganges, Yamuna and mythical Saraswati rivers.
The Maha Kumbh festival, held every 12 years, is the world’s largest religious gathering. Authorities expect more than 400 million people to visit the pilgrimage site this year. Here’s a look at other major stampedes in India over the past two decades:.
A stampede in Uttar Pradesh in 2024. More than 100 people were killed in a stampede in northern India in July 2024 following a Hindu religious gathering, making it one of the deadliest such accidents in years. Thousands had gathered at a makeshift tent for an event led by a Hindu preacher in Uttar Pradesh state. The victims were crushed to death as they rushed to leave. Video of the aftermath showed the makeshift structure appeared to have collapsed.
A bridge collapse at the Navaratri festival in 2013. A collapsing bridge caused a stampede that killed 115 people, mostly women and children, on Oct. 13, 2013. Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims had come to a Hindu temple in the remote town of Ratangarh in Madhya Pradesh state on the last day of the popular 10-day Navaratri festival.
A stampede at a Hindu temple in Jodhpur in 2008. At least 168 people were killed and 100 injured when thousands of pilgrims stampeded at a Hindu temple in Jodhpur on Sept. 30, 2008. Severe overcrowding apparently caused the crush, as more than 12,000 people gathered at the temple to celebrate Navaratri, a Hindu festival.
