A stampede broke out on a crowded pedestrian bridge connecting two railway stations in Mumbai during the Friday morning rush, and at least 22 people were killed in the crush while another 27 were injured, officials said.

When falling concrete hit the bridge railing, people in the crowd thought the bridge would collapse and surged to escape, Mumbai police official Gansham Patel said.

People had been crowding under the canopy covering the bridge to escape heavy rains, making the deadly tragedy worse, said lawmaker Shaina Nana Chudasama of the governing Bhartiya Janata Party.

Commuters also often complain about street-sellers hawking their wares on the narrow overpass.

The pedestrian bridge connected two local Mumbai railway stations — Elphinstone and Parel.

Deadly stampedes are fairly common during Indian religious festivals, where large crowds gather in small areas with few safety or crowd control measures.