Kids among 31 killed at church honest 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 stunning improvement at a program that aimed to offer hope to the needy. One witness mentioned the lifeless included a pregnant lady and many youngsters.

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

Such events are common in Nigeria, Africa’s largest financial system, where greater than 80 million individuals stay in poverty, in keeping with government statistics.

Saturday’s charity program was supposed to begin at 9 a.m. however dozens arrived as early as 5 a.m. to safe their place in line, Iringe-Koko stated. Someway the locked gate was damaged open, making a stampede, she said.

Godwin Tepikor from Nigeria’s Nationwide Emergency Administration Company stated first responders had been in a position to evacuate the bodies of those trampled to demise and bring them to the morgue. Security forces cordoned off the area.

Dozens of residents later thronged the scene, mourning the dead and offering any assistance they may to emergency workers. Docs and emergency workers treated some of the injured as they lay in the open discipline. Videos from the scene showed the clothes, sneakers and other items meant for the beneficiaries.

One witness who only identified himself as Daniel mentioned "there have been so many youngsters” among the lifeless. Five of the useless children had been from one mom, he told the AP, adding that a pregnant lady also lost her life.

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

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

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

Nigeria has seen comparable stampedes in the past.

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

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