47 reported killed in a stampede in Bangladesh

At least 47 people, most of them women and children, were killed and hundreds injured in a stampede when thousands of poor people scrambled for clothes being handed out as charity in a northern Bangladesh town today.

At least 47 people, most of them women and children, were killed and hundreds injured in a stampede when thousands of poor people scrambled for clothes being handed out as charity in a northern Bangladesh town today.

At least 30 victims, including five children, died instantly in the stampede in Gaibandha town, 120 miles north of the capital Dhaka, it was reported. More died on the way to hospital.

At least 200 people were reported to be injured, many of them taken to hospital.

The stampede occurred after more than 10,000 people, mostly women and children, gathered to receive clothes distributed by a local businessman ahead of the Islamic Eid Al-Fitr festival next week.

The incident happened outside an abandoned jute mill, where the distribution was planned. The crowd surged into the compound as guards opened its gates, causing the stampede.