A massive fire broke out Friday at India's ongoing mega Hindu festival Maha Kumbh Mela in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh destroying over 20 makeshift tents, officials said.

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.

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.

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.

As of February 5, 2025, the total number of devotees who have taken the holy dip since the beginning of the Mela has surpassed 389.7 million.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended on Wednesday the Hindu festival Kumbh Mela in northern India and immersed himself in the confluence of the sacred Ganges and Yamuna rivers, where a stampede claimed the lives of 30 people and left nearly a hundred injured a week ago.

Kumbh Mela, often called the world’s largest human gathering, is underway in northern India. DW explores a key highlight of the festival, where the sadhus — holy men, revered for their spiritual devotion,