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.

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.

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.

Modi takes a holy dip at Kumbh Mela, a week after a deadly stampede killed 30 and injured nearly 100 in Prayagraj. #KumbhMela #Modi #India

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.

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,