Moments before Maha Kumbh stampede, devotees pleaded to open more routes

Prayagraj: Moments before a deadly stampede at the world's biggest religious gathering in India, Hindu devotees queuing to take a spiritual bath in a river said they pleaded with police to open barricaded routes to thin out a surging crowd.

Police did not respond, they said, and soon people squeezed in the massive crowd began fainting, creating panic at the Maha Kumbh Mela Hindu festival in the northern city of Prayagraj.

"People were asking police to open the barricades to other routes as it was suffocating to stand there in that crowd for almost an hour. We couldn't breathe," Jagwanti Devi, who was in the crowd with her family of six, said on Thursday.

"Then suddenly my mother fainted, and some other elderly people also fainted, which created a commotion. We fell down and many people stepped over us," said Devi, wailing next to the bodies of her mother and sister-in-law at a city mortuary.

At least 30 people died in the stampede that broke just after midnight on Wednesday, according to official data, but authorities speaking on condition of anonymity at the mortuary said the death toll was nearly double at more than 50.

A Reuters witness counted at least 39 bodies inside the morgue late Wednesday afternoon, by when some bodies had been handed over to relatives, but police said the excess bodies were unrelated deaths.

80 MILLION CROWD UNEXPECTED

Vaibhav Krishna, a deputy inspector general at the festival, and two other officers, said the crowd of 80 million was four times larger than the expected size and all the devotees wanted to go to the main bathing area at the confluence of three rivers rather than spreading out.

The first alert on police systems of a crowd surge came an hour before midnight on Tuesday and a second alert 45 minutes after midnight, by which time police had sent additional forces to the area, Krishna said.

The first casualty report came half an hour later.

Police said the path leading to the main bathing area is only 50 metres (150 feet) wide and barricaded on either side to avoid people spilling over to other paths used by Hindu ascetics and for quick movement of police vehicles and ambulances.

"We are looking at making some changes now," Krishna told Reuters. He said the sprawling 4,000 hectare (9,990 acres) festival site on the river banks, the equivalent of 7,500 football fields, will be divided into more sectors.

The area where the rivers join "will have additional forces and we will try to reduce the turnaround time of pilgrims in the bathing area"," he said.

At present, the confluence area is manned by 220 police in addition to volunteers who manage crowds and try to maintain a standard 15 minutes of bathing time.

'POLICE KILLED MY HUSBAND'

Four other eyewitnesses recounted the chaotic scenes with hundreds of people climbing over barricades and falling over one another in between screams and cries of women and children.

"Police have killed my husband, they did not make proper arrangements," wailed Kanchan Kopde, as her family consoled her outside the morgue at Moti Lal Nehru Medical College.

Krishna said police were also injured in the incident while doing all they could to control the crowd. Another officer said the crowd management strategy was developed after months of deliberation with experts, but added it might need reconsideration.

The Hindu festival - held every 12 years - is expected to draw some 400 million devotees in 2025, officials estimate. The Haj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, in comparison, drew 1.8 million people last year.

Opposition Congress party has blamed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party for improper arrangements and giving greater focus to arrangements for celebrities and politicians rather than ordinary people.

After the stampede, the festival administration issued an order to discontinue special protocols such as barricading of roads to allow movement of VIP personnel.

Shweta Arya, 21, a medical student who with her group of five friends was among those who got trapped, said the festival administration was to blame.

"It was a clear failure on their part. Many lives would have been saved if they had just removed the barricades to let us through," Arya said.