"I almost died in that place today," said one shaken protester who gave his name only as Elias. Mud-covered and shoeless, he said he had been dragged out of a deep ditch that many people fell into as they tried to flee.
The first to fall in had suffocated, he said.
"Many people have managed to get out alive, but I'm sure many more others were down there," he said. "It is really shocking."
The stampede occurred in one of the East African country's most politically sensitive regions, Oromia, which has seen months of sometimes deadly demonstrations demanding wider freedoms.
An estimated 2 million people were attending the annual Irrecha thanksgiving festival in the town of Bishoftu, southeast of the capital, Addis Ababa, when people began chanting slogans against the government, according to witnesses.
The chanting crowds pressed toward a stage where religious leaders were speaking, the witnesses said, and some threw rocks and plastic bottles.
Police responded with tear gas and rubber bullets, and people tried to flee. Some were crushed in nearby ditches, witnesses said.
In its statement, the Oromia regional government blamed "evil acts masterminded by forces who are irresponsible," and it denied that the deaths were caused by any actions by security forces.
Mulatu Gemechu of the opposition Oromo Federalist Congress told The Associated Press that his sources at hospitals said at least 52 people were dead as of Sunday evening, but he thought the figure would rise.
The protesters were peaceful and did not carry anything to harm police, he said.
Before the stampede, an AP reporter saw small groups of people walking in the crowd and holding up their crossed wrists in a popular gesture of protest.
The reporter also saw police firing tear gas and, later, several injured people.
The crossed-wrists gesture has been used widely as a sign of peaceful resistance and is meant to symbolize being handcuffed by security forces.
It was in the spotlight at the Rio Olympics, when Ethiopian marathoner Feyisa Lilesa, who is from the Oromia region, crossed his wrists while finishing in second place. He hasn't returned to the country since, saying his life could be in danger.
Ethiopia's government, a close security ally of the West, has been accused often of silencing dissent, at times blocking internet access.
The months of anti-government protests and the sometimes harsh government response have raised international concern.
The U.S. recently spoke out against what it called the excessive use of force against protesters, describing the situation in Ethiopia as "extremely serious."
On Sunday, many people in Ethiopia turned their Twitter and Facebook profiles to solid black and expressed anger at the government over the deaths.
The regional government declared three days of national mourning.
Ethiopia is facing its biggest anti-government unrest in a decade and some festival participants had crossed their wrists above their heads, a gesture that has become a symbol of protest by the Oromo community, according to an AFP photographer at the scene.
Ethiopia is facing its biggest anti-government unrest in a decade and some festival participants had crossed their wrists above their heads, a gesture that has become a symbol of protest by the Oromo community, according to an AFP photographer at the scene.
"The annual Irreecha festival has been disrupted due to a violence created by some groups... Loss of lives has occurred due to a stampede," said a government statement published by state media earlier.
Merera Gudina, chairman of the opposition Oromo Federalist Congress, told AFP there had been many fatalities.
"Bodies are being collected by the government. But what I hear from people on the ground is that the number of dead is more than one hundred," said Gudina.
Sunday's event quickly degenerated into violence, with protesters throwing stones and bottles and security forces responding with baton charges and tear gas grenades, with some reports of gunfire.
- 'Days of rage' -
The police action sent people fleeing in panic with many falling on top of each other into a ditch.
Police demanded that AFP's photographer leave the scene, where rubber bullets were seen strewn on the ground.
Oromo activists called for "five days of rage" to protest the deaths while a strong police presence was visible as the news of the day's events spread.
"This government is a dictatorship, there is no equality or freedom of speech. There is only TPLF. That's why we must protest today," said Mohamed Jafar, referring to the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front.
In 1991 the TPLF, then a rebel group, overthrew Mengistu Haile Mariam's dictatorship and now, as a political party stands accused of monopolising power.
Every year millions of people in the Oromo region mark the Irreecha festival on the shores of Lake Harsadi, which they consider sacred.
The anti-government protests started in the central and western Oromo region in 2015 and spread in recent months to the northern Amhara region.
"For the last 25 years the Oromo people have been marginalised in many things. Today we come together as one to chant for our freedom," said one of the people at the festival, Habte Bulcha.
Together, Oromos and Amharas make up 60 percent of the population of the Horn of Africa nation and have become increasingly vocal in rejecting what they see as the disproportionate power wielded by the northern Tigrean minority in government and the security forces.Fifty-two people died on Sunday in a stampede at a religious festival in Ethiopia to celebrate the end of the rainy season, the regional government said.
Violence broke out at the gathering in the town of Bishoftu near the capital Addis Ababa due to the actions of "irresponsible forces", the authorities said in a statement, adding that "as a consequence, 52 people died in this crush."
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