At least 11 women and children were killed in a deadly stampede at a Ramadan food distribution centre in Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi on Friday, police and rescue officials said.
The stampede happened when hundreds of women and children panicked and started pushing each other to collect food outside a factory. Some of them fell into a nearby drain, local police official Mughees Hashmi said. Residents said a wall also collapsed near the drain, injuring and killing people amid the stampede.Several people were also injured in the stampede. Hashmi said eight women and three children died.
Pakistan's Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who is from the southern Sindh province of which Karachi is the capital, ordered authorities to investigate what caused the deadly incident. Local resident Mohammad Arsalan said he lives near the factory where people had gathered since the morning to collect the free food. He said he did not know what exactly caused the incident, but "we heard cries and later learned about this stampede."
Cash-strapped Pakistan launched an initiative to distribute free flour among low-income families to ease the impact of record-breaking inflation and soaring poverty during the holy month. But crowds have swelled at the distribution centres in recent days.
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