At least 30 die in stampede

AT least 30 women and children were killed and hundreds injured in a stampede when thousands of poor people scrambled for clothes being handed out in a northern Bangladesh town yesterday, police said.

People had been trying to force their way into the grounds of a rich businessman who was giving away clothes and money ahead of the Muslim Eid al-Fitr festival, a local journalist quoted a Red Crescent official as saying.

Police said two people from the businessman’s household had been arrested but gave no details. A wall and an iron gate collapsed, triggering the stampede.