More than 15 people have been killed, and many more injured, in a crowd crush at the world’s largest religious festival in northern India.

Witnesses counted several bodies, and a doctor at the festival site in the city of Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh told that 15 people were killed in the crush near a river bank early on Wednesday morning.

The final death toll is yet to be confirmed and relatives of injured victims were anxiously waiting for news outside a large tent serving as a purpose-built hospital for the festival approximately a kilometre (half a mile) from the accident site.

A Rapid Action Force (RAF) – a special unit called in during crises – had been deployed to the area to bring the situation under control, and rescue efforts were under way, officials said.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and gave “directions for normalisation of the situation and relief”.
The Mahakumbh Mela, or Great Pitcher Festival, is the single biggest milestone on the Hindu religious calendar, and up to 400 million pilgrims were expected to visit before the festival’s final day on February 26.

The festival is being held on a 10,000-acre site (4,046 hectares) where makeshift tents have been constructed to accommodate pilgrims. Wednesday marks one of the holiest days in the six-week festival, with holy men due to lead pilgrims in a procession of sin-cleansing bathing at the confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers in Prayagraj.

Held every 12 years in four locations – Prayagraj, Haridwar, Nashik and Ujjain – Hindus believe the festival is an opportunity for them to wash their sins away as they gather on the banks of sacred rivers to take part in a day of ritual bathing.

Deadly crowd crushes regularly occur at Indian religious festivals, and the Mahakumbh – often called simply the Kumbh – boasts a grim track record for deadly incidents.

More than 400 people died on a single day of the festival in 1954 after being trampled or drowned, in what remains one of the deadliest incidents of its kind.