Stadium stampede in Malawi kills 8, mostly children

JOHANNESBURG — A crowd stampeded at a stadium in Malawi’s capital during independence day celebrations on Thursday, killing eight people and injuring more than 40 others, most of them children.

The disaster happened at Bingu National Stadium in Lilongwe ahead of a soccer match between two local teams.

The dead include children between five and 12 years old, reported The Daily Times, a newspaper in the southern African country. It said the accident happened when police used tear gas to disperse a crowd pushing into the stadium during commemorations of independence from Britain on July 6, 1964.

Ambulances, police cars and other vehicles rushed the injured to a hospital, where friends and family members gathered to check on the victims.