60 Crushed to Death in Ivory Coast New Years Fireworks Stampede The incident took place near Felix Houphouet Boigny Stadium where a crowd had gathered to watch fireworks, emergency officials said. One of the injured, speaking to Reuters at a hospital, said 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 underway to determine what happened. A Reuters correspondent said blood stains and abandoned shoes littered the scene outside the stadium on Tuesday morning. "My two children came here yesterday. I told them not to come but they didn't listen. They came when I was sleeping. What will I do?" said Assetou Toure, a cleaner. She did not know if her children had escaped unhurt. 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. Ivory Coast, once a stable economic hub for West Africa, is struggling to recover from a 2011 civil war in which more than 3000 people were killed. | From: keepinguuptodate Views: 19 1 ratings | |
Time: 02:07 | More in News & Politics |
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