At least 36 people were killed in a stampede at a railway
station in northern India yesterday. The stampede came on the
busiest day of the world's largest religious festival, at which
30 million people had gathered to wash away their sins in the
Ganges river. Twenty-seven of the dead were women, mostly
elderly and poor. An eight-year-old girl also died. Up to 100
million pilgrims and Hindu ascetics are expected to attend the
two-month long Kumbh Mela festival, which comes to an end next
month. It is held every 12 years in a temporary city covering an
area larger than Athens, spread over a wide sandy river bank in
Allahabad at the point where the Ganges and Yamuna rivers meet a
third mythical river. The festival grows in size every time it
is held and is considered the world's largest temporary
gathering of people. Officials said 30 million visited the site
yesterday, considered the most auspicious day to bathe in the
river. Officials gave contradictory versions of what caused the
crush. A railway official sai