What is the Maha Kumbh Mela and why does it attract millions of Hindus? - Officials had been preparing for months for the world’s largest religious festival, with around 400 million Hindu pilgrims exp

STORY: More than 36 hours after a deadly stampede at India's Maha Kumbh Mela festival claimed dozens of lives, distraught relatives frantically searched hospitals and mortuaries for missing loved ones.

More than seven people were killed in a stampede at the Maha Kumbh Mela, or Great Pitcher Festival, in the northern Indian holy city of Prayagraj on Wednesday.

Many were feared dead after millions of Hindu pilgrims at a huge Hindu festival in India rushed to bathe in holy river waters.

The Hindu festival that turned deadly in northern India on Wednesday is a religious gathering with deep spiritual meaning for devotees who come by the millions to take a cleansing dip in waters they consider sacred.

Nearly 40 people were killed in India's northern state of Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday and several others injured in a pre-dawn stampede at the Maha Kumbh Mela - a Hindu religious festival touted to be the largest human gathering in the world.

Kumbh Mela is a religious gathering that draws tens of millions of Hindu pilgrims and spiritual seekers from India and across the globe. The event is deeply rooted in Hindu mythol

At least seven people were killed and around 10 injured in a pre-dawn stampede at the Maha Kumbh Mela in the northern Indian city of Prayagraj on Wednesday, an official said, the most auspicious day of the six-week Great Pitcher Festival.