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.

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.

PRAYAGRAJ, India — At least 30 people were killed and many more injured in a stampede at the world’s largest religious gathering early Wednesday, police said, as millions of pilgrims rushed to dip in sacred waters during the Maha Kumbh festival in northern India.

Millions of Hindus are gathering in a northern Indian city for the Maha Kumbh festival, the world’s largest religious congregation.

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.

Thirty individuals are dead and at least 60 individuals are injured in a stampede at the Maha Kumbh Mela in northern India, according to the Uttar Pradesh Police. Read More: Jasprit Bumrah Honored as

At least 30 people have been killed and 60 were injured in the pre-dawn stampede on Wednesday at the Maha Kumbh in Prayagraj here, a top police officer said.Twenty-five bodies have been identified and the rest are yet to be identified,