Toxic foam covers sacred Yamuna river

Devotees performing religious rituals on Wednesday as they offer prayers to the Sun god while standing in the Yamuna river which is coated with foam.

One of India's holiest rivers, the Yamuna is heavily polluted, adding to the woes of New Delhi residents already enduring a blanket of thick smog over the national capital.

The city government blamed the blight on "heavy sewage and industrial waste" discharged into the river from further upstream.

But it did not deter several Hindu worshippers from taking a dip in the river to mark Chhath Puja, a four-day festival.