A look at stampedes and crowd disasters in India over the years

NEW DELHI (AP) — At least 30 people are dead and many more injured in a stampede Wednesday as tens of thousands of Hindus rushed to bathe in a sacred river at the massive Maha Kumbh festival in India, the world’s largest religious gathering.

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 is held every 12 years. 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. Thousands had gathered at a makeshift tent for an event led by a Hindu preacher in Uttar Pradesh state. The victims were crushed 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.

Landslide rumors caused deadly crowd surge in 2008

Dozens of women and children were among the 145 people who died on Aug. 3, 2008, when thousands of pilgrims stampeded at a remote mountaintop temple in northern India during celebrations to honor Shakrti, a Hindu goddess. The devotees attended a nine-day religious festival at the Naina Devi Temple in the Bilaspur district of Himachal Pradesh state. Rumors of a landslide apparently started the panic, according to a senior government official.

A stampede and fire during a religious procession in 2005

A stampede during a religious procession to a hilltop temple on Jan. 25, 2005, killed at least 258 people and injured 200 in western India, near the village of Wai, some 150 miles (241 kilometers) south of Mumbai. The stampede was triggered after several Hindu pilgrims inside the temple fell on a slippery floor and were crushed by other pilgrims. Angered over the deaths, some pilgrims started a fire that gutted hundreds of makeshift shops along a narrow walkway leading to the temple and set off the deadly rush.

Ashok Sharma, The Associated Press