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<\/div>\nAt least 53 people were killed during a stampede that broke out in Yemen’s Sanaa. (Representational)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Sanaa: <\/b><\/p>\n
More than 80 people were killed and hundreds of others injured in a deadly stampede that broke out in Yemen’s capital during a charity distribution, Huthi officials told AFP on Thursday.<\/p>\n
The latest tragedy to strike the Arabian Peninsula’s poorest country came days ahead of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan.<\/p>\n
At least “85 were killed and more than 322 were injured” after the stampede in the Bab al-Yemen district of Sanaa, a Huthi security official said.<\/p>\n
“Women and children were among the dead,” he told AFP on the condition of anonymity because he is not authorised to speak to the press.<\/p>\n
A second health official confirmed the toll.<\/p>\n
An AFP correspondent in the Huthi-controlled capital said the incident took place inside a school where aid was being distributed.<\/p>\n
Security forces deployed heavily around the area as people flocked to the scene hoping to locate relatives but they were barred from accessing the site.<\/p>\n
The dead and injured have been moved to nearby hospitals and those responsible for the distribution were taken into custody, the interior ministry said in a statement carried by the rebel’s Saba news agency.<\/p>\n
Authorities have called for an investigation.<\/p>\n
The Huthi’s interior ministry did not provide an exact toll but said “dozens of people were killed due to a stampede during a random distribution of sums of money by some merchants”.<\/p>\n
Videos circulating on social media showed bodies lying on the ground inside a large complex as people clamoured around them.<\/p>\n
AFP could not independently verify the footage.<\/p>\n
– Widespread poverty –<\/strong><\/p>\n Civil war broke out in Yemen in 2014, when Iran-backed Huthi rebels seized Sanaa, prompting a Saudi-led coalition to intervene the following year to prop up the internationally recognised government.<\/p>\n Fighting has eased dramatically since a six-month, UN-brokered truce last year, even after it expired in October.<\/p>\n But the war unleashed what the United Nations describes as one of the world’s worst humanitarian tragedies.<\/p>\n More than two-thirds of the population lives below the poverty line, according to the UN, including government employees in Huthi-controlled areas who haven’t been paid civil servant salaries in years.<\/p>\n Over 21.7 million people — two-thirds of the country — need humanitarian assistance this year, according to the UN.<\/p>\n The stampede tragedy dims the cheer of a massive prisoner exchange between the country’s warring parties that saw nearly 900 detainees freed over the weekend.<\/p>\n On Monday, more than 100 other prisoners of war were flown from Saudi Arabia to Yemen.<\/p>\n (Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n