ALLAHABAD, India — Anxious relatives searched for missing family members in northern India on Monday during one of the world’s largest religious gatherings, unsure if their loved ones were caught in a stampede that killed 37 people or had simply gotten lost among the tens of millions of pilgrims.
People thronged to the main hospital in Allahabad to see if their relatives were among 37 dead and 39 injured in Sunday evening’s stampede at the city’s train station. Tens of thousands of people were in the station waiting to board a train when railway officials announced a last-minute change in the platform, triggering the chaos.
An estimated 30 million Hindus took a dip Sunday at the Sangam - the confluence of the Ganges, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati rivers - as part of the 55-day Kumbh Mela, or Pitcher Festival. Sunday was one of the holiest days to bathe.
People missing at the Kumbh Mela is the stuff of legend in India and at least a dozen films have been made on the theme. On Sunday, like most other days, volunteers and officials used loudspeakers to give details of children and elderly people who were “found” on the riverbanks, having lost their families in the crowd.
It was unclear how many people were missing because of the stampede.
On Monday, state government officials and railway authorities told reporters that they had taken all precautions to prevent just such a disaster.
Stampedes are common during religious festivities in India. During the Kumbh festival, platoons of policemen patrol the specially marked bathing areas to prevent crowding along the riverbanks in Allahabad.
For the past few weeks, and especially on festival days, authorities made constant announcements asking people to move in orderly lines to the bathing areas.
An official in the Uttar Pradesh state government in charge of the festival arrangements resigned Monday as the death toll mounted.
State Minister Mohammed Azam Khan said he had “moral responsibility” for the stampede and submitted his resignation although the stampede took place outside the Kumbh festival area.
Witnesses blamed police action for the stampede.
“We heard an announcement that our train is coming on platform No. 4 and when we started moving toward that platform through a footbridge, we were stopped. Then, suddenly, the police charged us with batons and the stampede started,” passenger Shushanto Kumar Sen said.
“People started tumbling over one another and within no time, I saw people, particularly women and children, being trampled over by others,” Sen said.
Police denied they had used batons to control the crowd.
“It was simply a case of overcrowding. People were in a hurry to go back and there were not enough arrangements by the railway authorities,” said Arun Kumar, a senior police officer.
Medical superintendent Dr. P. Padmakar of the main state run hospital said 29 of the 37 people killed were women.
Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal said an inquiry has been ordered into what led to the stampede. He said the railway station had huge crowds of people wanting to return home after prayers on the riverbanks.
The crowds overran the station, and women, children and old people were pushed aside as people rushed toward the trains. Officials said train services were suspended after the stampede, leading to further crowding of the station.
Indian television stations showed large crowds pushing and jostling at the train station as policemen struggled to restore order.
“There was complete chaos. There was no doctor or ambulance for at least two hours after the accident,” a witness told NDTV news channel.
Bansal said overcrowding at the station prevented medical teams from immediately reaching the injured.
Volunteers used stretchers to carry the injured to private vehicles, which then ferried them to the hospital.
Bodies of the victims were being handed over to their families, Padmakar said. But 14 bodies were yet to be identified, he said.
The crowding at the station was just as bad Monday, with tens of thousands waiting to catch trains home.
Officials said railway authorities Monday began running special trains to help reduce the crowds that were waiting for transport to leave Allahabad.
Information for this article was contributed by Biswajeet Banerjee of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 2 on 02/12/2013