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          At Least 60 People Crushed to Death in Ivory Coast Stampede

   by  Reuters

   About 60 people were crushed to death in a stampede outside a stadium
   in Ivory Coast's main city of Abidjan after a New Year's Eve fireworks
   display, the government said on Tuesday.

   The incident took place near Felix Houphouet Boigny Stadium where a
   crowd had gathered to watch fireworks, emergency officials said. One of
   the injured, speaking to Reuters at a hospital, said security forces
   had arrived to break up the crowd, triggering a panic in which many
   people fell over and were trampled.

   "The provisional death toll is 60 and there are 49 injured," Interior
   Minister Hamed Bakayoko said in a statement broadcast on national
   television.

   President Alassane Ouattara, visiting injured people at the hospital,
   called the incident a national tragedy and said an investigation was
   underway to determine what happened.

   A Reuters correspondent said blood stains and abandoned shoes littered
   the scene outside the stadium on Tuesday morning.

   "My two children came here yesterday," said Assetou Toure, a cleaner
   who still does not know if her children had escaped unhurt. "I told
   them not to come but they didn't listen. They came when I was sleeping.
   What will I do?"

   The incident was the worst of its kind in Abidjan since 2010, when a
   stampede at a stadium during a football match killed 18 people.

   Ivory Coast, once a stable economic hub for West Africa, is struggling
   to recover from a 2011 civil war in which more than 3,000 people were
   killed.
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   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/reuters-scores-of-people-crushed-to-d
   eath-in-ivory-coast-stampede/1575793.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/reuters-scores-of-people-crushed-to-death-in-ivory-coast-stampede/1575793.html