Twenty-seven people were killed and 40 injured yesterday in a stampede in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, police said, as crowds surged to bathe in the Godavari River on the first day of a religious festival held once every 144 years.

Twenty-six women and one man died and at least 40 pilgrims were injured in the crush, said police deputy superintendent B. Ramakrishna of Rajahmundry district, where the festival is held.

The stampede started after a woman fell down in a crowd pushing to get through a narrow entrance to the banks of the Godavari, he said.

Police estimated the crowd swelled to more than one million yesterday. The government of the southern state expects some 40 million pilgrims to attend the Godavari Maha Pushkaralu, which will run for12 days.

Stampedes are not uncommon at India’s large religious festivals, where crowds routinely number in the tens of millions. In 2013, 36 pilgrims were killed during a stampede in a train station during a festival in northern India.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his condolences to the victims’ families.

Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu, who took a dip in the river earlier in the day to kick off festivities, announced a sum of one million rupees ($15,750) in compensation for each victim’s family.

He also ordered the deployment of more police to help control the crowds.

The incident did not deter pilgrims, who continued to pour into the festival grounds, carrying children and luggage above their heads or perched on top of cars stranded in the throng.