SANAA: At least 80 people were killed and scores others injured in a stampede in the Yemeni capital Sanaa during the distribution of food for Ramazan as hundreds assembled in a school to receive aid.
Houthi media outlet Al Masirah TV said that several people including children were injured in the stampede, and of them, 13 were in critical condition.
According to Reuters, the stampede occurred during the distribution of charity for Ramazan by two well-to-do traders in the final days of Ramazan.
Hundreds of people had gathered in a school to receive charity donations, when the stampede took place, two witnesses involved in the rescue effort told Reuters.
A video uploaded by Houthi television on the social media app Telegram showed the frantic people jammed together, while some screaming and shouting and reaching out to be retrieved to safety.
In a separate statement, the Houthi-controlled interior ministry said that the two traders responsible for distributing the donation had been detained and a probe was underway.
Yemen has been entangled in an eight-year civil war that has killed tens of thousands of people including women and children and worn-out the economy and pushed millions into starvation.
A local coalition attacked Yemen in 2015 after the Houthis overthrew the government from Sanaa in 2014.
Houthi supreme revolutionary committee head Mohamed Ali al-Houthi said in a statement that the stampede was the result of the Yemeni people suffering “the worst global humanitarian crisis” after eight years of war.
He said that they hold the countries of aggression responsible for what happened in Sanaa because the blockade has rendered millions of people without food.
