At least 85 people were killed and 322 injured – including 50 in critical condition – yesterday, Wednesday, in Yemen, in one of the largest stampedes in the world in the last ten years, during the distribution of financial aid in Sanaa, according to Al Jazeera.
And the French Press Agency reported that the stampede occurred inside a certain school in the Bab al-Yemen area in central Sana’a, where hundreds gathered to receive aid, according to eyewitness accounts, and some of them said that gunfire led to the stampede.
A spokesman for the Houthi Interior Ministry said in a statement that the stampede occurred during the distribution of financial aid by some merchants in the last days of Ramadan.
Two witnesses involved in the rescue effort told Reuters that hundreds of people flocked to a school to receive aid amounting to 5,000 Yemeni riyals, or about $9 per person.
A video recording, published by the Houthi-affiliated Al Masirah TV, showed dozens of people jostling in a narrow place, while some of them shouted loudly. "Go back, go back".
The Yemeni news agency Saba quoted the spokesman for the Houthi Ministry of Interior, Brigadier General Abdul Khaleq Al-Ajri, as saying that the incident took place "Due to a stampede of citizens during the random distribution of sums of money by some merchants".
added "The tragic and painful accident (…) claimed dozens of lives"pointing out that"The dead and injured were taken to hospitals and two merchants in charge of the matter were arrested".
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