The stampede occurred on the stairway leading to the Mansa Devi temple in the Hindu holy city of Haridwar, on the banks of the Ganges river, and left many injured.

“Six dead and more than 10 injured are admitted to the hospital,” senior city police official Parmendra Dobhal told AFP.

Uttarkhand chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said relief and rescue operations were underway.

“I am constantly in touch with the local administration regarding this matter and continuous monitoring of the situation is being done,” he said in a statement.

Deadly stampedes and crowd crushes are a common occurrence at Indian religious festivals.

In June, a sudden crowd surge at a Hindu festival in the coastal state of Odisha triggered a stampede that killed at least three people and injured several others.

The previous month six people were crushed to death in the western state of Goa after thousands gathered for a popular fire-walking ritual.

And in January, at least 30 people were killed in an early morning crush at the Kumbh Mela, a Hindu mega-festival in the northern city of Prayagraj.