At least 18 people were killed in a stampede at a railway station in India’s capital on Saturday night as massive crowds rushed to catch trains heading to the world’s largest religious gathering, officials and reports confirmed.
The Kumbh Mela, held every 12 years in the northern city of Prayagraj, draws tens of millions of Hindu devotees and has a history of tragic crowd incidents. Just last month, another stampede at the sacred confluence of the Ganges, Yamuna, and mythical Saraswati rivers claimed at least 30 lives.
The latest disaster struck a train station in New Delhi as thousands of worshippers attempted to board trains bound for the ongoing festival, which will conclude on February 26.
“I can confirm 15 deaths at the hospital. They don’t have any open injury. Most (likely died from) hypoxia or maybe some blunt injury, but that would only be confirmed after an autopsy,” Dr. Ritu Saxena, deputy medical superintendent of Lok Nayak Hospital in New Delhi, told AFP.
“There are also 11 others who are injured. Most of them are stable and have orthopaedic injuries,” she added.
Indian broadcaster NDTV, citing an official from another hospital, reported that three additional people had died.
Most of the victims were women and children.
“I have been working as a coolie since 1981, but I never saw a crowd like this before,” The Times of India quoted a porter at the railway station as saying.
“People started colliding and fell on the escalator and stairs” when the platform for a special train to Prayagraj was abruptly changed, he recalled.
Authorities Launch Investigation
Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced that a “high-level inquiry” had been ordered to determine the cause of the stampede. He also confirmed that additional special trains were being arranged from New Delhi to accommodate the surge of pilgrims.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his condolences over the tragedy.
“I am distressed by the stampede. My thoughts are with all those who have lost their loved ones. I pray that the injured have a speedy recovery,” he wrote on X.
Delhi’s governor, Vinai Kumar Saxena, said disaster response teams had been deployed and assured that “all hospitals are in readiness to address related exigencies.”
Kumbh Mela’s Deadly Past
The six-week-long Kumbh Mela is the most significant event on the Hindu religious calendar, with officials estimating that around 500 million pilgrims have already attended since it began last month.
The festival has witnessed several major crowd disasters in the past. In 1954, over 400 people were trampled or drowned in a single day, marking one of the deadliest stampedes in recorded history. More recently, in 2013, 36 people were crushed to death during the event in Prayagraj.
