Ivory Coast new year stampede kills dozens in Abidjan

 

At least 60 people have been crushed to death and more than 200 injured during new year festivities in Ivory Coast's main city Abidjan, officials say.

 

The incident occurred in the early hours of Tuesday near a stadium in the central Plateau area of the city where a fireworks display was held. The cause of the stampede is not yet clear. It occurred as people were heading home after the event. Most of the dead are believed to be children aged between eight and 15. The death toll is expected to rise.

 

The crush happened near the entrance to the Felix Houphouet Boigny Stadium after the fireworks ended at about 02:00 local time. Details of what exactly happened remain sketchy.

 

According to some reports, thousands of people were trying to leave the stadium at the same time as another large crowd was trying to get in, the BBC's West Africa correspondent Thomas Fessy says. But one of the wounded told Reuters news agency that the arrival of security forces had triggered a panic which resulted in a stampede.

 

"The great mass of people caused a very large stampede which caused 60 deaths, more than 200 people were injured," Lt Col Issa Sako, head of the military rescue effort, told reporters. "In the stampede, some people were trampled and suffocated by the crowd."

 

At least two hospitals in the city have received the wounded, some reportedly with life-threatening injuries. President Alassane Ouattara has visited some of the wounded in hospital and promised that the costs of their medical treatment will be covered by the government.

 

The governor of Abidjan, Robert Beugré Mambe, said he had also visited the wounded and the families of those who had lost loved ones. "We bow our heads respectfully before the memory of all those who died," he said.

 

The site of the crush was littered with abandoned clothes and blood stains as light dawned. Relatives went to the scene to get news of missing loved ones. The distraught mother of a nine-year-old boy told local media: "I have just seen all those bodies, but I can't find my son."

 

The 65,000-capacity Felix Houphouet Boigny Stadium was named after the founding president of Ivory Coast. The fireworks event had been organised to celebrate the recently re-established peace.

 

The night before the tragedy, the stadium hosted a concert by US performer Chris Brown.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-20881552

R.I.P. to the fallen.