(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-03-27 13:29

BHOPAL - At least eight people were trampled to death and 10 seriously injured in a stampede at a Hindu temple in central India, officials said.

The stampede happened late on Wednesday, when thousands of villagers were making their way to a temple during an annual fair in remote Karila village, about 260 km (160 miles) from Bhopal, the capital of Madhya Pradesh state.

"It was simply an accident as people who attempted to enter the temple by climbing over a railing fell," Geeta Mishra, a senior government official, said on Thursday.

Authorities sealed the temple gates and were investigating the stampede.

In rural India, insufficient security to control crowds often causes stampedes and deaths.

In 2005, about 265 pilgrims were killed at a stampede near a temple in the western state of Maharashtra.