KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — At least 11 people were killed in a deadly stampede at a Ramadan food distribution center in Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi on Friday, police and rescue officials said.
The stampede happened when hundreds of people panicked and started pushing each other to collect food outside a factory. Some of them fell into a nearby drain, local police official Mughees Hashmi said.
Local media reported that at least 11 people died in the stampede and several other were injured.
It is the deadliest stampede at Ramadan food distribution points since the start of the Islamic holy month of fasting. With the latest incident, the death toll from stampedes at free food centers across the country has risen to at least 19 since last week.
Cash-strapped Pakistan launched an initiative to distribute free flour among low-income families to ease the impact of record-breaking inflation and soaring poverty during the holy month. But crowds have swelled at the distribution centers in recent days.
The free flour distribution initiative was launched by Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif last week, although his coalition government is facing the country’s worst economic crisis amid a delay in getting a key $1.1 billion tranche of a $6 billion bailout package originally signed in 2019 with the International Monetary Fund.
Weekly inflation is 45%, unseen since Pakistan got its independence from British colonial rule in 1947. Rising food costs and soaring fuel bills have raised fears of public unrest.
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