At least 16 devotees of a Hindu sect, the All World Gayatri Parivar, were trampled to death and 50 others were injured on Tuesday when a stampede occurred while they were celebrating the 100th birthday of the founder in northern India.

More than a thousand members of the All World Gayatri Parivar sect could not fit on the site of the ceremony held near the holy river Ganges in Haridwar, Uttarakhand state, according to local officials. Then the stampede happened during a ritual when devotees made offerings to a holy fire.

"When the big ritual was going on, too many people rushed forward to make their offerings to the holy fire and the crowd got out of control," said Hemant Sahu, a crew of the event organizer, according to AFP and BBC.

Haridwar District Magistrate D Santhil Pandyan described the 10:25 a.m. incident to The Times of India. He said thousands of devotees, mostly from eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar states, climbed stairs to cross a mini bridge ahead of the venue for the religious ceremony. The crowd from behind pushed those in front triggering the stampede.

Killed on the spot were 14 women and two men. They apparently died from suffocation. The death toll is expected to rise as the injured are treated in hospitals.

The event celebrating the birthday centenary of Sri Ram Sharma, who died in 1990, started at the cult's pilgrimage center on Sunday and ends on Thursday, according to the sect's website.

The logo of the All World Gayatri Parivar founded by Sri Ram Sharma.