India's Kumbh Mela festival attracts tens of millions of Hindu faithful to Prayagraj in northern Uttar Pradesh state, but footage of an elderly monk making an offering at a shrine that circulated online is unrelated.

A video spread online shows an annual stone-pelting ritual in northern India, contrary to claims by social media posts that presented it as Hindu pilgrims attacking each other at the Kumbh Mela mega-festival.

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.

A deadly stampede on Wednesday hit India's Kumbh Mela, a vast Hindu festival held by the banks of the Ganges river that 400 million pilgrims are expected to visit over its six-week duration. - Sacred bathing - The Kumbh Mela,

The world's largest religious gathering, the Maha Kumbh Mela in northern India, turned deadly Wednesday, with officials confirming at least 30 deaths and 60 people injured in a stampede on the biggest day of the festival.

Thirty people were killed in the stampede that happened just before dawn at the Maha Kumbh venue in Prayagraj of India's Uttar Pradesh, the police chief that oversees security at the massive religious gathering told reporters on Wednesday, January 29.

View of devotees at India’s Maha Kumbh Mela after casualties reported Thousands of ash smeared Hindu holy men lead millions of devotees to take a dip in the icy waters of the holy rivers Ganga Yamuna and Saraswati during the second "Shahi Snan" (royal bath) to mark Mauni Amawasya,