BEIJING: Fourteen people, some of them children, were killed and 10 injured in a stampede that broke out as food was being distributed at a mosque in China’s Ningxia region, state media reported yesterday.
The stampede occurred at lunchtime on Sunday while traditional food items were being handed out to people attending an event to commemorate a late religious leader, the official Xinhua news agency said, citing the local government.
The injured were hospitalised, with four in critical condition, the brief report said.
One photo posted online by Chinese news outlets showed six bodies laid out side-by-side inside a building, with several children in colourful outfits among the dead.
Pictures posted online showed a large crowd, most of them men and many wearing white Islamic caps, standing outside the green mosque, apparently after the incident.
Clothes and shoes were scattered on the ground, along with what appeared to be a collapsed section of scaffolding.
An inquiry was under way into the cause of the stampede at the mosque in Xiji, around 280 kilometres (174 miles) south of the regional capital Yinchuan.
AFP
