Post date: Nov 03, 2013 2:18:56 PM
Eye witnesses describe a stampede involving over 100 000 people at a church in Eastern Nigeria which killed at least 24 and injured dozens more.
ANAMBRA, NIGERIA (NOVEMBER 2, 2013) (CHANNELS TV) - At least 24 people died during a stampede at an overcrowded church gathering ineastern Nigeria, the Red Cross said on Sunday (November 3).
Nineteen women were amongst the dead at the stampede in the Holy Ghost Catholic Church in Uke, Anambra state on Saturday (November 2), where around 100,000 worshippers had gathered for All Souls Day, Red Cross spokesman Peter Kachi said by telephone.
"There were some people that fell, and we were told not to step on them. But those behind did not know what happened, and as they were coming out it appeared that they were being pushed, they now fell on us, and then we all began to shout from the ground. There were too many people."
The deputy commissioner of police for Anambra State, Emmanuel Udoji, said he was surprised the stampede had happened at all given the open area the service was being held in.
"This is where it happened here. Intially I thought it was maybe in a cathedral where there is limited access to exit if there's an emergency. But you can see from here that if there was an emergency people would just move to - there's no restraints, there are no fences, nothing," he said.
Religious services gathering several hundred thousand people are common in Nigeria, a country of around 170 million split roughly evenly between Christians and Muslims.