Antananarivo, Aug 25 (EFE).- At least 12 people have died and 80 sustained injuries in a stampede at Madagascar’s national stadium during the opening ceremony of the Indian Ocean Island Games.
“The provisional toll shows 12 dead and some 80 injured,” Prime Minister Christian Ntsay told reporters at a hospital in Antananarivo.
Ntsay said the government would take care of the injured.
The incident occurred at the entrance of the Barea Stadium in Antananarivo when sports fans tried to enter after large queues of people formed to access the venue for the games.
President Andry Rajoelina said around 50,000 people were in the stadium when the mayhem happened.
Rajoelina called for a minute-silence for the victims.
A woman told EFE that her 17-year-old son had gone to see the game opening with his friends.
“They were the ones who told us that he is among the injured,” the woman said, requesting anonymity.
The Indian Ocean Islands Games is a quadrennial multi-disciplinary sports competition of from Indian Ocean island nations. EFE
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