It was the height second at one of many holiest gatherings on the Hindu calendar — the Maha Kumbh Mela, a 45-day celebration that brings a whole bunch of hundreds of thousands of the devoted to wash within the joined Ganges and Yamuna rivers, washing away their sins.
Anticipating file attendance, Indian officers mentioned they had been using new know-how to assist regulate the crowds at this 12 months’s pilgrimage. However nothing was able to maintaining with the push as Tuesday turned to Wednesday, when an estimated 100 million got here to the waters over only a handful of hours after which all of a sudden dashed to depart in a lethal panic.