More than 85 people were killed and hundreds injured in the deadliest stampede at a charity distribution event in war-torn Yemen’s capital Sanna on Thursday, Houthi officials said.
The latest tragedy to strike the Arabian Peninsula’s poorest country came days ahead of the Islamic festival of Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
At least 85 were killed and more than 322 were injured after the stampede in the Bab al-Yemen district of the capital, a Houthi official told AFP, adding that women and children were among the dead.
Yemen’s capital Sanna is controlled by Huthi militant group and the incident took place inside a school where aid was being distributed.
Hundreds of people in the poverty-hit country had gathered to receive handouts, according to witnesses.
The dead and injured have been moved to nearby hospitals and those responsible for the distribution were taken into custody, the Huthi’s interior ministry said in a statement carried by the Saba news agency.
Civil war for more than eight years has unleashed world’s worst humanitarian tragedies in Yemen.
The conflict began in 2014 when ‘Iran’-backed Huthi rebels took over Sanaa, prompting a Saudi-led coalition to intervene the following year to prop up the internationally recognised government.
