Youngsters amongst 31 killed at church fair stampede in Nigeria

ABUJA, Nigeria -- A stampede Saturday at a church charity event in southern Nigeria left 31 people lifeless and seven injured, police advised The Related Press, a stunning improvement at a program that aimed to offer hope to the needy. One witness said the useless included a pregnant woman and lots of children.

The stampede on the occasion organized by the Kings Assembly Pentecostal church in Rivers state concerned individuals who got here to the church’s annual “Store for Free” charity program, based on Grace Iringe-Koko, a police spokeswoman.

Such occasions are common in Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy, where greater than 80 million individuals reside in poverty, according to authorities statistics.

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

Godwin Tepikor from Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Company said first responders have been capable of evacuate the our bodies of these trampled to loss of life and bring them to the morgue. Safety forces cordoned off the area.

Dozens of residents later thronged the scene, mourning the dead and offering any assistance they could to emergency employees. Docs and emergency workers treated a number of the injured as they lay within the open subject. Videos from the scene confirmed the clothes, shoes and different objects meant for the beneficiaries.

One witness who solely identified himself as Daniel stated "there were so many children” among the lifeless. 5 of the lifeless children were from one mom, he told the AP, including that a pregnant woman additionally misplaced her life.

Some church members were attacked and injured by kinfolk of the victims after the stampede, in keeping with witness Christopher Eze. The church declined to touch upon the scenario.

The police spokeswoman stated the seven injured had been “responding to remedy."

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

Nigeria has seen related stampedes up to now.

Twenty-four individuals died at an overcrowded church gathering in the southeastern state of Anambra in 2013, while not less than 16 individuals had been killed in 2014 when a crowd obtained uncontrolled during a screening for presidency jobs in the nation's capital, Abuja.

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