At least nine people including a 10-year-old boy suffocated to death as crowds rushing to see a New Year’s firework display got stuck in a narrow corridor in a shopping mall near Uganda’s capital, police said.
People started pushing through a passage in the Freedom City Mall just after clocks struck midnight, the police said.
“Very many people got stuck as they were entering in large numbers to see fireworks. In doing so, many people suffocated to death. So far nine people are confirmed dead,” the police statement read.
The Kampala Metropolitan deputy police spokesperson, Luke Owoyesigyire, said the incident appeared to have occurred at midnight “when an event emcee encouraged attendees to go outside and watch a fireworks display.”
The Katwe Territorial Police are “investigating an incident of rash [behavior] and neglect” according to an official statement.
No arrests have been made so far.
Five children died at the scene, according to Kampala Metropolitan deputy police spokesperson Patrick Onyango. “We have opened up the enquiry file to investigate circumstances why couldn’t they have done,” he added.
Police said the bodies had been taken to the city mortuary in Mulago.
People had been celebrating the New Year at the mall which is on a highway linking Kampala to Entebbe airport.
