NEW DELHI: At least 145 people, mostly women and children, were crushed to death under the feet of thousands of people in a stampede at a temple in northern India yesterday, police said.

“We have confirmation now that 145 people have been killed,” Daljit Singh Manhas, a senior police officer said.

Iron railings leading to the Naina Devi Temple in the state of Himachal Pradesh broke, causing the stampede, senior police officers said. Thousands of Hindu worshippers gather at the temple in Bilaspur district every year during an annual festival.

Chanting and singing hymns, Hindu worshippers were snaking up a 4-km trail, leading to the hill-top temple, when part of the iron railings on one side of the road broke, causing the stampede.

Thinking there was a landslide, the worshippers panicked and started fleeing down the hillside, trampling falling women and children, police and witnesses said.

“The injured have been taken to two places and the toll could be more as we are awaiting news from other hospitals,” Manhas said. He said at least 45 women were among the dead.

Authorities said at last 48 people were injured, but this figure could also rise as dozens of people were admitted to private clinics as well.

Police used a cable car to ferry down the dead and wounded, and helicopters were flown in to help with rescue efforts at the remote temple in the foothills of the Himalayas.

Television channels showed blurred pictures of the bodies of several small children, apparently lying at the bottom of the path. At the Bilhaspur hospital, rescue workers unloaded bodies wrapped in brown blankets from a truck and laid them in rows so they could be identified by relatives.

Witnesses said people jumped over broken railings and bodies to save themselves. Children lost their grip on their mothers’ hands and were crushed under the feet of scared pilgrims.

“Many children and women were shouting for help and I saw people tumbling down the hillside,” Dev Swarup, 48, said.

“There were rumors of boulders coming down on us and we all ran like the others,” said Swarup, his voice choked with emotion.

However, Anurag Garg, another police officer said, “At the moment our efforts are focused on rescue. Once that is compelete we will investigate the cause.”

Slippers, parts of torn clothes and bags with flowers and offerings lay along the narrow path winding up the hill, television pictures showed.

People crowded into hospitals looking for injured relatives.

A television channel showed a young woman pleading for water in a corner as rescuers brought more injured people on stretchers for treatment.

More than 10,000 people were trying to get into the temple and police had to struggle desperately to keep the situation under control.

“There were too many rumors, and we tried our best to keep things under control, but it went out of hand,” one officer said.

Most of the worshippers were from the neighboring state of Punjab, with numbers rising sharply at the weekend.

Stampedes at temples are not uncommon in India where thousands of people gather to pray during festivals. In 2005, about 265 pilgrims were killed in a stampede near a temple in the western state of Maharashtra.