Pakistan is mourning the victims of a deadly stampede that killed at least 11 people, including eight women and three children, at a Ramadan food distribution centre in Karachi on Friday.
The incident occurred when hundreds of people, mostly women and children, gathered outside a factory in an industrial area to collect free food and provisions ahead of the Muslim holy month of fasting.
According to police and rescue officials, some people panicked and started pushing each other to get the food. Some of them fell into an open drain near the factory, while others were crushed by a wall that collapsed amid the chaos.
The stampede left the street littered with wounded people and dead bodies. Several people were also injured and taken to nearby hospitals for treatment.
The factory owner who organised the food distribution centre had not alerted police about the plan, according to police official Mughees Hashmi. He said local police were unaware of the distribution, otherwise they might have deployed forces to control the crowd.
He said some of the factory’s employees were detained for questioning. The top elected official in Sindh province, Murad Ali Shah, ordered an investigation into the tragedy and asked charities and business owners to inform police before organising such Ramadan handouts.
The incident has sparked grief and anger among the relatives of the victims and the local residents. They blamed the factory owner and the authorities for negligence and mismanagement.