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Stampede kills 13, injures 120 at religious gathering in Angola

The spokesman for the national firefighters department, said those who died were crushed and asphyxiated

By Christopher Torchia
Associated Press

JOHANNESBURG — The death toll in a stampede on New Year’s Eve at a sports stadium in Angola has risen to 13, and some of the victims were children, Angolan media reported Wednesday.

Officials said about 120 people were also injured in the incident, which happened when tens of thousands of people tried to enter a stadium in the capital, Luanda, for a religious gathering, according to Angop, the Angolan news agency.

Faustino Sebastiao, spokesman for the national firefighters department, said those who died were crushed and asphyxiated.

The event in the southern African nation was organized by the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, an evangelical group founded in Brazil.

In western Africa, a crowd in Ivory Coast stampeded after leaving a New Year’s fireworks show early Tuesday, killing at least 60 people and injuring more than 200.

Copyright 2013 Associated Press

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