At least thirteen people died and eighty were injured this Friday in Madagascar when there was a stampede in a stadium during the opening of the Games of the Indian Ocean Islands, confirmed the prime minister of the country, Christian Ntsay.
“The State will take care of the eighty wounded, among whom eleven need surgery,” the president told reporters after visiting the victims at the hospital.
The incident occurred when the crowd tried to enter the Barea Stadium, located in the Malagasy capital, Antananarivo, in the Mahamasina neighborhood, after large lines of people formed to access the venue.
The country’s president, Andry Rajoelina, who put the number of people present in the stadium at around 50,000, called for a minute’s silence for the victims.
“My 17-year-old son went to Mahamasina with his friends, they were the ones who told us that he is among the injured,” a woman, who wanted to remain anonymous, told EFE while waiting to be informed by the emergency teams.
The Indian Ocean Islands Games are a multi-sport event in which the countries located within this ocean participate every four years, including both the African states of Madagascar, Comoros, Mauritius and Seychelles, as well as the French overseas territories of Mayotte. and Réunion, in addition to the Maldives, belonging to the Asian continent.
