People helped themselves to chickens from a truck which was involved in a multi-vehicle pile-up on an Indian highway.

The Dec 27 accident took place along the Agra-Delhi highway in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh amid foggy conditions.

One person died and several others were injured in the early morning incident, which also damaged dozens of other vehicles, Indian media reported.

Instead of helping those injured, people near the accident site made a beeline for the truck and carted away as many chickens as they could.

Some even bundled them into sacks, according to a video posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The truck driver, Mr Sunil Kumar, said he tried but failed to stop people from taking away the birds, reported The Times of India.

As a result, he said he suffered losses of 250,000 rupees (S$3,961).

But the police said they had not received any reports about the theft.

“No complaints have been received regarding the alleged looting of chickens,” The Times of India quoted police officer Sonam Kumar as saying.

On social media, people panned the looting, describing it as shameful.

“People are so helpful and compassionate. They’re helping caged and injured chickens to flee, and saving their lives,” an X user with the handle Mr B said sarcastically, while another X user just wrote “#IncredibleIndia”.

“Those poor chickens might be thinking they are being rescued but alas...” wrote X user masteraadmi.