ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast — At least 61 people were killed and more than 200 injured when a crowd stampeded after leaving a New Year’s fireworks show in the capital early yesterday. Most of the victims were between 8 and 15 years old.
“The flood of people leaving the stadium became a stampede which led to the deaths of more than 60 and injured more than 200,” Col. Issa Sako of the fire department rescue squad told Ivory Coast state TV.
Desperate parents went to the city morgue, the hospital and Felix Houphouet-Boigny Stadium to try to find their children.
One of them was Mamadou Sanogo, searching for Sayed, his 9-year-old son.
“I have just seen all the bodies, but I cannot find my son,” he said tearfully. “I don’t know what to do.”
Hours after the stampede, victims’ clothes, shoes and other belongings littered the street.
The government had organized the fireworks display to celebrate Ivory Coast’s return to peace after months of political violence in early 2011 following disputed elections.