STORY: More than 36 hours after a deadly stampede at India's Maha Kumbh Mela festival claimed dozens of lives, distraught relatives frantically searched hospitals and mortuaries for missing loved ones.

What is the Maha Kumbh Mela and why does it attract millions of Hindus? - Officials had been preparing for months for the world’s largest religious festival, with around 400 million Hindu pilgrims exp

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.

Many were feared dead after millions of Hindu pilgrims at a huge Hindu festival in India rushed to bathe in holy river waters.

For many Hindu pilgrims, bathing at the festival where three holy rivers meet is the spiritual journey of a lifetime. But as millions descended on this northeast Indian tent city, was it a disaster waiting to happen?

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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.

A stampede broke out at the ongoing mega Hindu religious gathering of Mahakumbh in India’s Prayagraj during the early hours of Wednesday, reportedly killing dozens, as tens of millions of devotees descended on the holy city to bathe on Mauni Amavasya- the most sacred bathing day of the festival.

Millions of Hindu devotees gathered on Thursday (January 30) for a holy dip in the sacred river waters of India's northern city of Prayagraj as part of the Kumbh Mela, a day after a stampede at the religious festival.

A police guard who did not want to be identified said a second stampede had occurred but "help reached in time" and the situation was contained. Senior police officers did not res