The death toll from a stampede Tuesday on the banks of a holy river in southern India has risen to 27, the state government said.

"Twenty-seven people have now been confirmed dead in the stampede and another 29 are injured," a spokesman for Andhra Pradesh's Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu said after police earlier put the number of dead at five.

"At least two of the 29 injured are critical," the spokesman Parakala Prabhakar told AFP, following the stampede by the river Godavari about two hours after the start of the Maha Pushkaralu festival.