Stampede at food distribution center kills 11 in Pakistan

Pakistani police say 11 women and children have been killed in a deadly stampede at a Ramadan food distribution center in the southern port city of Karachi

At least 11 women and children 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 women and children 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. Residents said a wall also collapsed near the drain, injuring and killing people amid the stampede.

Several people were also injured in the stampede. Hashmi said eight women and three children died.

It is the deadliest stampede at a food distribution point since the start of the Islamic holy month of fasting, Ramadan. With the latest incident, the death toll from stampedes at free food centers across the country has risen to at least 21 since last week.

Pakistan's Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who is from the southern Sindh province of which Karachi is the capital, ordered authorities to investigate what caused the deadly incident.

Hashmi said the factory owner who organized the food distribution center had not alerted police about the plan. He said local police were unaware of the distribution, otherwise they might have deployed forces.

Local resident Mohammad Arsalan said he lives near the factory where people had gathered since the morning to collect the free food. He said he did not know what exactly caused the incident, but “we heard cries and later learned about this stampede.”

Friday's incident comes a day after authorities ordered deployment of additional police at the Ramadan food distribution centers to avoid dangerous overcrowding.

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.

On Friday, Sharif visited a wheat flour distribution center in Islamabad and met women who had come to collect flour. The premier asked authorities to ensure that people are treated well and there are no further incidents.

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.