PRE-RAMADAN STAMPEDE KILLS AT LEAST 10 WOMEN IN BANGLADESH

Police in southeast Bangladesh has said a stampede involving thousands of poor villagers outside the home of a businessman distributing alms ahead of Ramadan, has lead to the death of at least 10 women and injured about 50 others.

The holy fasting month of Ramadan is expected to begin on Wednesday or Thursday this week, and it is customary for devout Muslims to donate money or goods to the poor before or during the month.

The owner of a steel mill was handing out clothes and other items at his residence when the stampede began, said Rafiqul Alam, a police official in the district of Chittagong, about 260 km from the capital, Dhaka.

He told Reuters, “There were 10,000 to 12,000 people, mostly women and trying to push to each other to collect alms ahead of other and that led stampede”.

A nearby hospital treated the injured and allowed them to go home, he added.