More than 12,000 had gathered at the temple in Jodhpur in western India to celebrate Navratri when bomb rumours spread through the crowd. (Associated Press)

At least 168 people were crushed to death Tuesday after thousands of pilgrims stampeded at a temple in India, police said.

Ramesh Vyas, a pilgrim who was standing in line, said the stampede began near dawn after false rumours of a bomb spread among the crowd of more than 12,000 gathered at the temple in Jodhpur in western India to celebrate the Hindu festival of Navratri.

India has had several recent bomb attacks, the latest on Monday night in the western city of Malegaon.

The temple floors were slick with milk from coconuts pilgrims had broken as a religious offering to the Mother Goddess as part of the nine-day festival, Vyas said.

The milk appeared to cause many of the devotees to slip and fall as they scrambled to escape the crowds, he said.

Some of the dead appear to have fallen down a hillside after railings in the temple that is on top of a hill gave out during the stampede, James Astill, a correspondent with the Economist, told CBC News.

People dragged others by their arms and legs as they ran down a ramp that leads to the temple inside the massive 15th-century Mehrangarh.

Television footage showed dozens of bodies on the sidewalk while frantic people nearby tried to revive unconscious devotees.

More than 100 people were also injured in the stampede, officials said, and have been admitted to about six hospitals in Jodhpur.

Stampedes are relatively common at temples in India, where large crowds — sometimes hundreds of thousands of people — congregate in small areas lacking facilities to control big gatherings.

In August, 145 people were killed in a stampede at a hilltop temple in northern India.

With files from the Associated Press