Mon | Dec 11, 2023

Stampede at food distribution centre kills 11 in Pakistan

Published:Friday | March 31, 2023 | 2:13 PM
Police officers examine the site of stampede in Karachi, Pakistan, Friday, March 31, 2023. Several people were killed in the deadly stampede at a Ramadan food distribution center outside a factory in Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi, police and rescue officials said. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — At least 11 women and children were killed in a deadly stampede at a Ramadan food and cash distribution centre in Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi on Friday, police and rescue officials said, as the country struggles with surging food prices.

The stampede happened when hundreds of women and children panicked and started pushing each other to collect food outside a factory in a well-known industrial area, known as SITE or Sindh Industrial and Trading Estate.

Business owners during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan often hand out cash and food, especially to the poor.

As the stampede began, some women and children fell into an open drain, local police official Mughees Hashmi said.

Residents said a wall also collapsed near the drain, injuring and killing people.

The incident left the street that leads to the factory littered with wounded people and dead bodies.

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