10 dead, 120 injured in stampede at Angolan stadium

USPA News - Ten people, including four children, were crushed to death on New Year`s Eve when tens of thousands of worshipers tried to enter an overcrowded sports stadium in the Angolan capital of Luanda to attend a vigil, state-run media reported on Tuesday. The incident happened at around 7:30 p.m. local time on Monday when thousands of people were waiting at the gates of Cidadela Sports stadium in Luanda to attend a vigil organized by the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (IURD), which is a Pentecostal Christian church that was founded in Brazil in 1977. Ferner Batalha, IURD`s deputy bishop for Angola, said the number of worshipers was far greater than the capacity of the sports stadium.

"Our expectation was to have 70,000 people, but that was surpassed by far," he was quoted as saying by the state-run Angola Press (ANGOP) news agency. Civil protection spokesman Faustino Sebastião told ANGOP that ten people, six adults and four children, died when they were crushed by the crowd and asphyxiated. At least 120 others were injured and treated for various injuries, including 12 people who remained hospitalized on Tuesday. Lina Ali, director of clinical services at Americo Boavida hospital, said the hospital had treated approximately 70 of the injured. She said most of the victims were killed and injured at one of the four gates where there had been "some confusion." Authorities gave no other details about the exact circumstances.