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.

At least 17 people were killed and many more injured in a stampede at India's Maha Kumbh festival, the world's largest religious gathering, a doctor at a government hospital said, as tens of thousands of pilgrims rushed to dip in sacred river waters during the Hindu event.

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.

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.

Several people were feared dead after a stampede at the Maha Kumbh Mela, or Great Pitcher Festival, in northern India's Uttar Pradesh State on Wednesday, on one of the holiest days of the event as tens of millions of people gathered at the site.

Stampede breaks out at Kumbh festival in India

Nearly 40 bodies were brought to a hospital morgue after a stampede at the Maha Kumbh Mela in northern India on Wednesday, three police sources told Reuters, as tens of millions gathered to bathe in sacred river waters on the most auspicious day of a six-week festival.