A senior police officer said at least 30 people died as a crowd panicked at the Hindu Kumbh Mela mega-festival in the northern city of Prayagraj.

People were trampled as pilgrims at the Maha Kumbh Mela, one of the world’s biggest gatherings, gathered where the Ganges and Yamuna Rivers meet, officials said.

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.

Authorities say that at least 30 people have died and a further 60 were injured in a crowd crush at the massive Kumbh Mela festival in India. The world's biggest religious festival and humanity's largest gathering,

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.