Children among nine dead in Uganda New Year firework crowd crush

KAMPALA - At least nine people including a 10-year-old boy suffocated to death as crowds rushing to see a New Year’s firework display got stuck in a narrow corridor in a shopping mall near Uganda’s capital, police said.

People started pushing through a passage in the Freedom City Mall just after clocks struck midnight, the force said.

“Very many people got stuck as they were entering in large numbers to see fireworks. In doing so, many people suffocated to death. So far nine people are confirmed dead,” the police statement read.

People had been celebrating the New Year at the mall which is on a highway linking Kampala to Entebbe airport. 

Police spokesman Luke Owoyesigyire said: “Emergency responders arrived on the scene and transported the injured individuals to the hospital, where nine were confirmed dead.”

He said “rash” acts and “negligence” had led to the tragedy.

The celebrations to welcome in 2023 were the first in the east African country in three years, after restrictions linked to the Covid-19 pandemic and security issues.

“Most of the dead were juveniles, ages 10, 11, 14 and 20,” Kampala police spokesman Patrick Onyango said.

One of the survivors, businesswoman Sylvia Nakalema, said the stampede started “when we went to view the fireworks on the platform and while returning downstairs”.

“There was a huge crowd. People begun pushing each other for space leading some to fall and the stampede ensued,” she said.

“Children were crying and there was chaos.

“I survived because I was pushed in a corner by the crowd,” said the 27-year-old.

“I felt losing breath but I stayed put since I had no exit until the situation calmed down but some people were already lying down gasping for breath.”

Uganda’s NTV channel broadcast images of relatives of the dead gathered outside a morgue in the Ugandan capital on Sunday. REUTERS, AFP