Prayers Up: Nine suffocate to death in Ugandan New Year firework crush
Reuters | EEW Magazine Online | Global News
People started pushing through a passage in the Freedom City Mall just after clocks struck midnight. (Credit: AFP Photo)
As millions around the world celebrated the incoming of the New Year by giving thanks to God and attending events with family and friends, tragedy struck in Uganda.
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.
“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,” read the police statement obtained by EEW Magazine Online.
Experts say that individuals die in crowd crushes because they often get squeezed so hard, they can’t get any oxygen, not because they’re getting trampled.
When a crowd surges, the force can be strong enough to bend steel. It can also hit people from two directions: one from the rear of the crowd pushing forward and another from the front of the crowd trying to escape. If some people have fallen, causing a pileup, pressure can even come from above. Caught in the middle are people’s lungs.
In Uganda’s New Year’s tragedy, people had been excitedly celebrating the New Year at the mall which is on a highway linking Kampala to Entebbe airport.
