Cote d'Ivoire: Scores Die in Fireworks Display Crush

VIDEO: Dozens Die in Cote d'Ivoire Stampede
1 January 2013
allAfrica.com

Sixty people died and many more were injured in a crush at a New Year's fireworks display in Abidjan, news agencies report.

Agence France-Presse quoted an officer in charge of rescue workers, Lieutenant Colonel Issa Sako, as telling Ivorian public television that preliminary estimates were that 60 people had died and 200 were injured. AFP said another official said 61 had died and 48 were injured.

Reuters reported that on Tuesday morning there were blood stains and abandoned shoes outside Felix Houphouet Boigny Stadium, where the display had taken place.

Colonel Soto told AFP that, "In the crush, people were walked over and suffocated by the crowd."

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