Dozens of bodies have been spotted floating in the River Ganges as India remains gripped by a brutal coronavirus wave.
Witnesses said more than 100 bodies had been dumped in the huge river in the state of Bahir, while dozens floated in the Yamuna River in Uttar Pradesh.
Unsettling footage taken from the river banks shows half burnt bodies drifting in the water while others were seen wrapped in shroud.
One local official told NDTV : “They are bloated and have been in the water for at least five to seven days. We are disposing of the bodies.”
They added: “The bodies are not from here as we don’t have a tradition of disposing of bodies in the river.”
The upsetting scenes came as India continued to battle huge numbers of coronavirus infections.
Today the Indian government announced a further 366,161 infections and 3,754 deaths had been recorded, although the true number was likely much higher.
India is close to reaching the grim milestone of 250,000 official fatalities.
The vast numbers of deaths have pushed funeral services to breaking point, with families struggling to find funeral pyres to dispose of their loved ones.
“It appears the poor are forced to discard the bodies amid this pandemic,” said one of the residents, who lost three family members to Covid-19.
Mr Abhishek, a senior doctor in Uttar Pradesh, said: “It is a major threat for the population after witnessing these bodies being dumped in the river.”
(Image: Prabhat Kumar Verma/Pacific Press/REX/Shutterstock)
(Image: REUTERS)
Officials in Buxar city in Bihar said that the bodies had floated down the Ganges from Utter Pradesh.
Forty corpses had piled up by steps leading down to the river, sparking an investigation to identify the dead.
India has been battered by the coronavirus since a mutant strain emerged in the country.
(Image: Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
People infected with coronavirus are dying in the streets, bodies are piling up at crematoriums and hospitals are running out of oxygen.
During a second wave described as a “tsunami”, infected people have been wandering the streets looking for hospitals with open beds, morgues have run out of stretchers and trees from parks have been used to burn bodies.
There has been a frantic hunt for oxygen, which is being sold on the black market, to keep seriously ill relatives alive.
People have been hoarding supplies which has sparked panic and shortages in hospitals.