At least 60 dead in Ivory Coast stampede
Around 60 people died in a crush in Ivory Coast’s main city of Abidjan after a new year’s eve fireworks display, the Ivorian government confirms.
The incident happened near Felix Houphouet Boigny Stadium on Monday evening where a crowd had gathered to watch fireworks.
One of the injured said that security forces had arrived to break up the crowd, triggering a panic in which many people fell over and were trampled.
“The provisional death toll is 60 and there are 49 injured,” Interior Minister Hamed Bakayoko said in a statement broadcast on national television.
President Alassane Ouattara, visiting injured people at the hospital, called the incident a national tragedy and said an investigation was being carried out to determine what happened.
Young victims
Many of the victims are said to have been children.
On Tuesday morning there were reports of blood stains and abandoned shoes outside the stadium and government officials and rescue and security forces were still at the scene.
Assetou Toure, a cleaner, said she did not know if her children survived.
“My two children came here yesterday,” she said. “I told them not to come but they didn’t listen. They came when I was sleeping. What will I do?”
The incident was the worst of its kind in Abidjan since 2010, when a stampede at a stadium during a football match killed 18 people.