(REOPENS DEL40)

Nearly 6,000 additional buses are being run to clear the city in general and the Kumbh Mela area in particular of the exceptionally large number of devotees who had arrived to take a holy dip on the auspicious occasion of Mauni Amavasya" and were still stuck up here, official sources said. The administration claimed that nearly three crore devotees had visited the city since Saturday night for the bathing festival. Meanwhile, those who managed to escape from the tragedy with minor bruises gave divergent accounts of what could have triggered the stampede yesterday. Ajay Kumar from Banda said, "We were told that our train will be available at platform number 4. While crossing the foot over-bridge, we heard an announcement over the loudspeaker that the train will be coming on platform number 6. "We started running back, trying to plough through a huge crowd headed in the opposite direction.In the process, some of the people tripped and people started falling over each other," he said. However, Praveen from Sonepat in Haryana blames the incident on "lathi charge by police". Praveen said, "There was a very huge crowd trying to descend from the over-bridge to catch their train on platform number 6. Unable to handle the situation, policemen began wielding their batons. Had they acted more sensibly, the stampede could have been avoided". The allegation of baton charge has, however, been denied by both Divisional Railway Manager Harindra Rao and DIG (Railway) Lalji Shukla.