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7 die in talent show stampede
01/05/2007 17:18 - (SA)
Tunis - Seven people died and 32 others, some as young as 12, were injured in a stampede at a televised talent contest concert in Tunisia, hospital officials said on Tuesday.
The victims, aged between 12 and 21, were trampled when the audience surged forward as stars the TV programme Star Academy appeared on stage at a theatre in the port city of Sfax, 300km south of Tunis.
An initial toll issued overnight on Monday, a few hours after the incident, said six people had died and a number of people had been injured.
But one injured person had died overnight, said Ibrahim Bouchrit, the director of the Habib Bourguiba hospital in Sfax.
Most of the 32 injured people had already been able to leave hospital, he added.
Eyewitnesses told AFP that the appearance of two Tunisian stars, including one from Sfax who had many fans in the audience, prompted the surge towards the stage, knocking some to the ground and trampling them.
President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali told the ministers of the interior and health, Rafik Belhaj Kacem and Ridha Kechride, to go immediately to Sfax and transmit his condolences to the families of the dead, the agency said.
A judicial inquiry has been opened into the accident.
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