Sixty-six people were killed and many more injured when a stampede broke out at a stadium in the Philippine capital, local radio quoted unnamed officials at the scene as saying. Metro Manila authority executive director Lito Vergel De Dios said in a radio interview that a crowd had been gathering around the ULTRA stadium since Wednesday to get into the taping of a popular television variety show. He was earlier quoted as saying 54 people had been killed. Officials contacted by AFP said they were still trying to compile a total from all the hospitals in the area.
Mr De Dios said someone in the crowd was believed to have shouted "bomb," sparking a panic that caused people to trample one another. Dead bodies, most of them women, were taken out of the stadium on stretchers and laid down on a dirty street, covered with newspapers, plastic bags and discarded cloth. |