Officials had been preparing for months for the world’s largest religious festival, with around 400 million Hindu pilgrims expected to take part

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.

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

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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.

Early reports suggested at least seven people had died, perhaps more, in a 'stampede' at a Hindu gathering in the city of Prayagraj. Researchers in Germany have tried to explain such events since a tragedy here in 2010.

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.

The Kumbh Mela happens every 12 years at Sangam, the confluence of three sacred rivers - the Ganges (Ganga), Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati. Hindus believe that bathing in the sacred waters will cleanse them of sins and help them attain salvation.

At least 30 people were killed and another 60 injured in a stampede at the Maha Kumbh festival, a six-week Hindu festival and the world’s largest religious gathering.