NEW DELHI:  , At least 15 people died during a stampede at a railway station in India’s capital late Saturday ( Feb 15 ) when surging crowds scrambled to catch trains to the world’s largest religious gathering, a medical official told AFP.
Tens of millions of Hindu devotees flock to the northern area of Prayagraj every year, and the Kumbh Mela has a record of crowd-related tragedies, including one last quarter, when at least 30 people died in another panic at the sacred convergence of the Ganges, Yamuna, and the magical Saraswati river.
As people fought to table trains for the upcoming event, which will end on February 26, the crowds at the New Delhi train place began to erupt Saturday.
” I may affirm 15 incidents at the hospital. They don’t have any available damage. The majority of the patients at Lok Nayak Hospital in New Delhi died from hypoxia or some harsh trauma, according to Dr. Ritu Saxena, deputy medical director of Lok Nayak Hospital.
” There are also 11 others who are injured. Most of them are secure and have orthopedic traumas”, she said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was “distressed” by the panic.
” My thoughts are with all those who have lost loved ones.” In a blog on X, he continued,” I pray that the injured have a quick recovery.”
Disaster management staff were instructed to build, according to the government of the capital city of Delhi, Vinai Kumar Saxena, and” all clinics are in preparation to address related exigencies.”
More specific railways were being operated from New Delhi, according to Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw to quell the ferocity of followers.
According to authorities, around 500 million followers have now gathered for the six-week Kumbh Mela, which is the biggest step on the Hindu religious timeline.
One of the highest death fees in a crowd-related disaster ever recorded was over 400 people who were trampled or drowned on one day of the 1954 event.
The next day the festival was held in Prayagraj, 36 people were killed in 2013.