NAINA DEVI/ HIMACHAL PRADESH: Lack of security arrangements around the historical Naina Devi temple in Himachal Pradesh led to the stampede on Sunday that has claimed at least 145 lives, eyewitnesses and survivors said.

The administration did not deploy sufficient police force even as the devotees numbered in thousands, Likhi Ram, who saw the tragedy unfold, told.

Naresh Sood, a shopkeeper dealing with puja material, said the administration was not prepared for the heavy rush.

He said generally the number of devotees goes up during the last three days of the 10-day Shravan Ashtami fair, but this was for the first time in the past 20 years that he witnessed such a huge crowd on the second day of the fair.

Moreover, government officials were busy in the statewide Jan-Jan Sanjivni Van Abhiyaan, a plantation drive that was launched on Sunday.

Eyewitness Ram Thakur said it was volunteers who carried out most of rescue works as officials reached the spot four hours after the accident.

Thakur added the inclement weather too hampered the evacuation of the injured.

Raj Kumar, a survivor, said vehicles on the road to the temple could not move for more than two hours due to traffic mismanagement.

He said there was no provision for life-saving drugs at the community health centre nearby.

ANANDPUR SAHIB: It was not the first time that the Naina Devi temple, just 20 km from Anandpur Sahib in Punjab, had seen a tragedy. A similar tragedy had happened exactly 30 years ago when 65 people died at the same spot. On Sunday, as more than 150 people were killed and hundreds injured as they were trekking to the hilltop temple, the arrangements were woefully inadequate. Eyewitnesses said there was no ambulance to carry the injured to the hospital.

In 1978 too, the stampede happened after rumours of a landslide.

Eyewitnesses said the doctors present could not help the injured. “They were only declaring people dead,” said a survivor. Even the Anandpur Sahib hospital, which has the capacity to handle 60 patients, got more than 140 bodies.

Even the police deployment to handle a massive crowd of pilgrims was inadequate and ill-equipped. No public address system was used to counter the rumours of landslide. There was also no crisis management team working at the spot.

Chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, who visited the scene of the stampede, ordered an inquiry to find out the lack of preparedness. The role of each government agency in handling the crisis will also be probed.