Survivors of a stampede in Ivory Coast that killed 61 people, most of them children and teenagers, after a New Year’s Eve fireworks display said makeshift barricades stopped them from moving along a main boulevard, causing the crush of people.

AN inquiry has been opened into Sunday’s tragedy at the Felix Houphouet-Boigny stadium which left 19 dead and 132 injured.

The president of the Ivory Coast Football Federation Jacques Anouma has pleaded for calm as investigations start into last night’s tragedy which left at least 19 people dead and 132 injured.

At LEAST 22 people were killed in a stadium crush during a World Cup qualifier between Ivory Coast and Malawi in Abidjan yesterday.