PRAYAGRAJ, India — Several people were feared dead and many more injured in a stampede early Wednesday as tens of thousands of Hindus rushed to take ritual baths in sacred rivers at the massive Maha Kumbh festival in northern India.

Several pilgrims were injured, some seriously, in the stampede between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m. as they tried to jump barricades erected for the movement of religious saints, Uttar Pradesh state’s top elected official, Yogi Adityanath, said in a televised statement.

He made no mention of any deaths even eight hours after the crush of pilgrims at the site. Some local news websites said 10 people had died.

Distressed families lined up outside a makeshift hospital inquiring about their missing relatives, rescuers were helping the injured and police tried to manage the crowds. People’s belongings like clothes, blankets and backpacks were strewn around the scene of the stampede. It was not immediately clear what triggered the panic.

An ambulance moves in the middle of a crowd of Hindu devotees gathered for a holy dip by the banks of the Sangam, the confluence of the Ganges, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati rivers, on Mauni Amavasya’ or new moon day during the Maha Kumbh festival in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, India on Wednesday.

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“The situation is now under control, but there is a massive crowd of pilgrims,” Adityanath said, adding that 90 million to 100 million pilgrims had congregated there.

“About 30 million people had taken the holy bath by 8 a.m. Wednesday,” he said.

Wednesday was a sacred day during the six-week festival, and authorities were expecting a record 100 million devotees to engage in a ritual bath at the confluence of the Ganges, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati rivers. Hindus believe that a dip at the confluence will cleanse them of their past sins and end their process of reincarnation. The main draw are thousands of ash-smeared Hindu ascetics who make massive processions toward the confluence to bathe.

Millions continued to throng the site even as police officials urged them over megaphones to avoid the confluence. Adityanath urged people to instead take baths at other riverbanks.

The Maha Kumbh festival, held every 12 years, started on Jan. 13 and is the world’s largest religious gathering. Authorities expect more than 400 million people to throng the pilgrimage site in total.

Nearly 150 million people have already attended, including the likes of Defense Minister Rajnath Singh and Home Minister Amit Shah and celebrities like Coldplay’s Chris Martin.

Hindu devotees take a holy dip by the banks of the Sangam, the confluence of the Ganges, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati rivers, on “Mauni Amavasya” or new moon day during the Maha Kumbh festival in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, India on Wednesday.

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A sprawling tent city was built on the riverbanks to accommodate visitors. It has roads, electricity and water, 3,000 kitchens and 11 hospitals.

About 50,000 security personnel are stationed in the city to maintain law and order and manage crowds, and more than 2,500 cameras monitor crowd movement and density so officials can try to prevent such crushes.

Deadly stampedes are relatively common around Indian religious festivals, where large crowds gather in small areas. In 2013, at least 40 pilgrims who were taking part in the same festival were killed in a stampede at a train station in Prayagraj.

Weather whiplash continues in Los Angeles County, where after weeks of dangerously warm and windy conditions, followed by sudden rainfall and small mudslides, the National Weather Service has issued a warning for a new threat — cold overnight temperatures that could pose a risk of hypothermia.

Temperatures in the county will plummet to the 30s and 40s on Tuesday and Wednesday nights, with daytime highs in the 50s and low 60s, as the low pressure system that brought weekend rains continues to spin through the region, according to the weather service. Temperatures as low as the mid 20s are forecast in the Antelope Valley.

Meteorologists warn that, with these cold temperatures, there’s a risk of hypothermia for people and animals, and sensitive plants and crops could be damaged.

The number of hypothermia deaths in California has grown in recent years. In 2023, 166 Californians died from hypothermia, double the number in 2015, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Experts attribute this uptick to the increase in people living on the streets; homeless people are at the highest risk of developing hypothermia, a condition that can set in at air temperatures as high as 50 degrees.

This cold snap will also affect areas of the interior Central Coast, San Joaquin Valley, Ojai Valley and Santa Barbara County, where the weather service has issued freeze alerts.

A gradual warmup will begin Friday as a ridge of high pressure moves into Southern California, but temperatures will remain several degrees below normal in L.A. County, according to the weather service. The warming is expected to continue through the weekend, with highs in the mid 70s predicted for the San Fernando Valley and in the 60s to low 70s elsewhere.

Meteorologists say there’s a good chance of widespread rain in L.A. County next Tuesday and Wednesday and predict that this will be a heavier rainfall than the splatter over the weekend.

“Rain rates and totals could be quite a bit higher,” said the weather service. “Certainly something to pay close attention to, especially for those near recent burn scars.”

Landslides are a risk after wildfires because the heat of the fire makes the soil repellent to water. When rainfall intensity is high — more than half an inch per hour — water can start flowing on the surface downhill instead of percolating below ground, and can begin to pick up rocks and debris.

The weekend rainfall led to minor slides and flooding in the Palisades burn area, prompting the temporary closure of Topanga Canyon Boulevard. The 14,000-acre burn scar from the Eaton fire is also an area of concern.