Youngsters among 31 killed at church fair stampede in Nigeria

ABUJA, Nigeria -- A stampede Saturday at a church charity event in southern Nigeria left 31 individuals dead and 7 injured, police instructed The Associated Press, a surprising improvement at a program that aimed to supply hope to the needy. One witness stated the dead included a pregnant lady and lots of children.

The stampede on the event organized by the Kings Assembly Pentecostal church in Rivers state involved people who got here to the church’s annual “Shop for Free” charity program, in line with Grace Iringe-Koko, a police spokeswoman.

Such events are widespread in Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy, where greater than 80 million individuals live in poverty, according to authorities statistics.

Saturday’s charity program was supposed to start at 9 a.m. but dozens arrived as early as 5 a.m. to secure their place in line, Iringe-Koko mentioned. Somehow the locked gate was broken open, making a stampede, she stated.

Godwin Tepikor from Nigeria’s Nationwide Emergency Management Company stated first responders had been able to evacuate the bodies of these trampled to demise and produce them to the morgue. Security forces cordoned off the realm.

Dozens of residents later thronged the scene, mourning the lifeless and offering any assistance they could to emergency employees. Docs and emergency workers treated a number of the injured as they lay in the open subject. Movies from the scene showed the clothes, footwear and different items meant for the beneficiaries.

One witness who only identified himself as Daniel said "there have been so many children” among the many lifeless. Five of the lifeless kids have been from one mother, he instructed the AP, adding that a pregnant woman additionally misplaced her life.

Some church members were attacked and injured by relations of the victims after the stampede, according to witness Christopher Eze. The church declined to touch upon the state of affairs.

The police spokeswoman mentioned the seven injured were “responding to remedy."

The “Shop for Free” occasion was suspended while authorities investigated how the stampede occurred.

Nigeria has seen related stampedes up to now.

Twenty-four people died at an overcrowded church gathering in the southeastern state of Anambra in 2013, while at least 16 individuals had been killed in 2014 when a crowd got uncontrolled during a screening for government jobs within the nation's capital, Abuja.

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Related Press journalist Hilary Uguru in Warri, Nigeria, contributed.