WORLD
Deadly Stampede at Hindu Festival That Draws Millions
Baku, February 11 (AZERTAC). The pilgrims came, millions upon millions of them, in the greatest tide of humanity ever seen. Again and again, the vast crowds threatened to press too close, to trample the smallest. Then it happened.
As many as 30 people were killed Sunday in a stampede at the train station here as they rushed up steps leading to one of the platforms, the police said. The stampede came at the height of the Kumbh Mela, a Hindu religious festival that occurs once every 12 years by the banks of the Ganges and Yamuna Rivers.
About 30 bodies covered in white sheets were visible on the train platform on Sunday evening. Several appeared to be children.
Death and loss have long been associated with the pilgrimage at the Kumbh, which takes place in other locations according to a different cycle. Deadly stampedes previously occurred at the Allahabad pilgrimage in 1840, 1906, 1954 and 1986. And yet still the pilgrims come. Hindu lore says that when the Moon and Jupiter align, the Ganges and Yamuna are joined by a mystical river, the Saraswati, bearing the divine nectar of immortality.