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Jan. 28 (UPI) -- Dozens of worshippers are feared dead and many more injured following a stampede or crush Wednesday at the massive Kumbh Mela religious festival in northern India, according to officials. Local officials in the city of Prayagraj, where the world's largest religious event was taking place, reported 38 worshippers killed, as the government has yet to release an official death toll.
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According to a paramilitary officer at the scene, "There were multiple stampedes. There were at least 200 injured and I'd say around 50 dead." A doctor in Prayagraj claimed, "At least 15 people have died for now. Others are being treated."
A record 100 million people were expected to take a holy dip at the Sangam, the holy confluence of three rivers, as officials warned worshippers to take baths at other points along the Ganga river.
Wednesday's crowds during the six-week festival were larger as all 13 sects of holy people took their holy baths in the Ganges on a day that also coincided with the celestial alignment of the sun, moon and Jupiter for the Maha or grand Kumbh Mela, which only takes place every 144 years.
"I appeal to all the devotees that because a large crowd has gathered in Prayagraj today, they should not insist on taking a holy dip only at the Sangam Ghat," Hindu religious leader Jagatguru Rambhadracharya warned before the stampede, according to Times of India.
Wednesday's bathing ritual at Kumbh Mela was canceled "due to the heavy rush of devotees."
The Hindu festival began two weeks ago, with nearly 148 million attending. The festival is scheduled to continue until Feb. 26. Kumbh Mela is considered the "festival of festivals" in the Hindu religious calendar in India, since it takes place every 12 years.
Earlier this month, some journalists called the Maha Kumbh Mela festival a "disaster waiting to happen," as 400 million pilgrims were expected to bathe in the rivers. To manage the crowds, officials said they planned to employ artificial intelligence and underwater drones.
"We want everyone to go back home happily after having fulfilled their spiritual duties," said Amit Kumar, a senior police officer heading tech operations for the festival.
"AI is helping us avoid reaching that critical mass in sensitive places," he said last week. "We are using AI to track people flow, crowd density at various inlets, adding them up and then interpolating from there."
"The personal bubble of an individual is quite big in the West," said Kumar, as he explained crowd density that would trigger alarms. "The standard there is three people per square foot. But we can afford to go several times higher than that."
According to authorities, nearly 70% of India's deadly crowd disasters have occurred during religious mass gatherings.
In 1954, more than 400 people were trampled to death or drowned on one day at Kumbh Mela.
In 1986, 53 worshippers were killed and 39 injured as hundreds of Hindu pilgrims rushed to cleanse their sins in the holy Ganges River. Police had mistakenly directed the crowd onto a dead-end street where many were trampled.
At least 40 pilgrims were killed and more than 60 were injured in a stampede at the Kumbh Mela in western India's Nasik town in August 2003.
Ten years later, more than 36 people -- mostly women and children -- were killed in another stampede, before the head of the Kumbh Mela festival organizing committee resigned "on moral grounds."
Following the deaths of 10 people at the Ganges River in 2015, organizers of the Kumbh Mela festival imposed a selfie ban to prevent future stampedes during the ritual bathing.
A survey of volunteers and local administrators participated in a "human behavior study," which found people who took selfies slowed the flow of worshippers through the river, leading to pushing and panicking.
