Faizel Patel, Radio Islam News – 06-07-2017
A crowd stampeded at a stadium in Malawi’s capital during Independence Day celebrations has killed eight people and injured more than 40 others, most of them children.
The disaster happened at the 40,000-seat Bingu National Stadium in Lilongwe ahead of a soccer match between two local teams.
According to the Daily Times, the dead include children between five and 12
The paper says the accident happened this morning when police used tear gas to disperse a crowd pushing into the stadium during commemorations of independence from Britain on July 6, 1964.
The Nation, another Malawian newspaper described a chaotic scene at Kamuzu Central Hospital, where medics treated children in the emergency section and some victims were lying on the floor because all the beds were occupied.
Malawaian President Peter Mutharika says he’s mournng with the families of those who died.
“My government will do all it can to assist the bereaved families.”
Mutharika was due to speak before the afternoon football match, which was still scheduled to go ahead, and would also visit the injured.
Malawi, then known as Nyasaland, won independence from British colonial rule in 1964.
– Agencies
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