Amidst mourning the loss of 30 lives in the Maha Kumbh stampede, one man searches tirelessly for a missing seer. Families wander through Prayagraj's hospitals and police stations, hoping to find their lost loved ones.

At least 17 people were killed and many more injured in a stampede at India's Maha Kumbh festival, the world's largest religious gathering, a doctor at a government hospital said, as tens of thousands of pilgrims rushed to dip in sacred river waters during the Hindu event.

Moments before a deadly stampede at the world's biggest religious gathering in India, Hindu devotees queuing to take a spiritual bath in a river said they pleaded with police to open barricaded routes to thin out a surging crowd.