STORY: More than 36 hours after a deadly stampede at India's Maha Kumbh Mela festival claimed dozens of lives, distraught relatives frantically searched hospitals and mortuaries for missing 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.

A three-member judicial commission set up by the Uttar Pradesh government began its investigation into the Maha Kumbh stampede in Prayagraj. The incident, which resulted in 30 deaths, occurred at Sangam Nose.

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

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.

Several people are feared dead and many more injured as tens of thousands of Hindus rushed to take a holy bath in the river at the massive Maha Kumbh festival in India

The fire was reported in Sector-22 of the Maha Kumbh district near Chatnag Ghat. The devotees are reported safe and evacuated from the site of the fire.

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.

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.