At least 78 people were killed and hundreds injured in the Yemeni capital Sanaa on Wednesday in a stampede that occured at a charity event, said Houthi media. The event was held to distribute charitable donations to the poor in the last days of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
A statement by the Houthi-controlled Ministry of Interior said the deadly stampede happened at the event organised by merchants. Ministry's spokesman Brig Abdel-Khaleq al-Aghri blamed the disaster on the random distribution of funds without coordination with local authorities.
The statement said two merchants responsible for organising the event have been detained, and an investigation was underway. However, Houti security officials told AFP on conditions of anonymity that over 85 were killed and more than 322 were injured, including women and children.
Videos of the incident from local TV station show piles of bodies and people climbing over it to make their way through. Some were seen screaming and shouting to be pulled to safety.
The Houti officials have closed off the school where the event was organised and deployed security forces. However, footage aired on Al Masirah TV showed the area littered with sandles and scraps of clothes.
Screengrab from Al-Masirah TV video showing the stampede at a charity distribution event in Yemen's capital Sanaa | AFP
Families were also stopped from entering the hospitals were the injured were being treated. According to the AFP correspondent, a large crowd had decended in Sanaa, but the officials blocked relatives from entering the facility to locate loved ones.
Meanwhile, there are eyewitness accounts that the incident occured after armed Houthis shot in the air in an attempt to control the crowd. The bullet apparently struck an electric wire, causing it to explode. A panic ensued as people began stampeding.
Yemen is torn in the conflict between Iranian-backed Houthis and the internationally-recognised government. The conflict has turned into a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran, pushing the country into poverty. Almost two-thirds of the population is said to be living below the poverty line.
The war has killed more than 150,000 people, including fighters and civilians, and created one of the world's worst humanitarian disasters.
Mohamed Ali al-Houthi, head of the Houthi supreme revolutionary committee, said the stampede was the result of the Yemeni people suffering "the worst global humanitarian crisis" after eight years of fighting.
"We hold the countries of aggression responsible for what happened and for the bitter reality that the Yemeni people live in because of the aggression and blockade," he said on Twitter.
