More than seven people were killed in a stampede at the Maha Kumbh Mela, or Great Pitcher Festival, in the northern Indian holy city of Prayagraj on Wednesday.

Officials had been preparing for months for the world’s largest religious festival, with around 400 million Hindu pilgrims expected to take part

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.

Swarming throngs of devotees bathed in rivers at the world's biggest religious gathering in India on Thursday, undeterred by a stampede a day earlier that killed at least 30 people. The Kumbh Mela attracts tens of millions of Hindu faithful from around India every 12 years to the northern city of Prayagraj,

At least 30 people have been killed and dozens more injured in crowd crushes at the Maha Kumbh Mela in India, where millions have gathered to bathe at the confluence of sacred rivers. Tens of millions of people flocked to the northern state of Uttar Pradesh to immerse themselves in the water at the sacred confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers on one of the most auspicious days of the Hindu festival.