| JOHANNESBURG: A stampede broke out at Nelson Mandela's children's Christmas party yesterday as some 50,000 poor South Africans crashed through fences to claim free food and gifts, a local radio reported. Police said no one was killed at the party in the former president's village of Qunu, and played down reports of injuries. SAFM Radio station said children and their parents formed long queues before toppling fences due to overcrowding at the giant venue in the Eastern Cape, one of the country's poorest provinces. More than 50,000 people turned up to party at the annual jamboree and claimed free Christmas presents, more than twice the 20,000 expected, and that the surging crowd overpowered police, it said. |