A man grieving over his wife, who was killed during a stampede at the Allahabad railway station, Uttar Pradesh, on Sunday. ALLAHABAD, India — Anxious relatives searched for missing family members in northern India on Monday during one of the world's largest religious gatherings, unsure if their loved ones were caught in a stampede that killed 37 people or had simply gotten lost among the tens of millions of pilgrims. People thronged to the main hospital in Allahabad to see if their relatives were among 37 dead and 30 people injured in Sunday evening's stampede at the city's train station. Tens of thousands of people were in the station waiting to board a train when railway officials announced a last-minute change in the platform, triggering the chaos. People missing at the Kumbh Mela (the Hindu religious festival) is the stuff of legend in India and at least a dozen films have been made on the theme. On Sunday, like most other days, volunteers and officials used loudspeakers to give details of children and elderly people who were “found” on the river banks, having lost their families in the crowd. It was unclear how many people were actually missing because of the stampede. Witnesses blamed police action for the stampede. “We heard an announcement that our train is coming on platform number 4 and when we started moving toward that platform through a footbridge, we were stopped. Then suddenly the police charged us with batons and the stampede started,” passenger Shushanto Kumar Sen said. “People started tumbling over one another and within no time I saw people, particularly women and children, being trampled over by others,” Sen said. Police denied they had used batons to control the crowd. “It was simply a case of overcrowding. People were in a hurry to go back and there were not enough arrangements by the railway authorities,” said Arun Kumar, a senior police officer. Medical superintendent Dr. P. Padmakar of the main state-run hospital said 23 of the 37 people killed were women. Indian railway minister Pawan Kumar Bansal said an inquiry has been ordered into what led to the stampede. “There were just too many people on the platforms,” Bansal told reporters. The crowds overran the station, and women, children and old people were pushed aside as people rushed toward the trains. Officials said train services were suspended after the stampede, leading to further crowding of the station. Indian television stations showed large crowds pushing and jostling at the train station as policemen struggled to restore order. “There was complete chaos. There was no doctor or ambulance for at least two hours after the accident,” a witness told NDTV news channel. Bansal said overcrowding at the station prevented medical teams from immediately reaching the injured. Volunteers used stretchers to carry the injured to private vehicles which then ferried them to the hospital. The crowding at the station was just as bad Monday, with tens of thousands waiting to catch trains home. “We just want to get out of here. But the trains are delayed,” said Sunita Devi, a woman from neighboring Bihar state. — AP
