BAMAKO - A stampede at a famed mosque in Mali's northwestern desert city of Timbuktu crushed at least 26 people to death and left many more injured, officials and witnesses said on Friday.A hospital source said 16 bodies had arrived at a Timbuktu hospital, and 55 had been injured in the crush outside the Djinguereber mosque, one of Mali's most recognisable buildings. A police official said at least ten other bodies had not been transported to the morgue at the hospital, but had already been buried in line with Muslim tradition.
Thousands of pilgrims come to Timbuktu for the prophet's birthday and an official said the accident appeared to have happened because of a bottleneck caused by renovation work on the 14th-century mosque, made largely from mud.
“People were circling the mosque, a ritual at each Mouloud (the observance of the birthday of the Prophet Mohammed) and there was a huge crowd built up,' one of the witnesses, Mohamed Bandjougou, said of the accident late Thursday.
“I lost my sister. She was 16 and had gone to pray,' said another resident, Ali Kounta.
Known as “the Great Mosque', Djinguereber is the oldest monument and largest mosque in Timbuktu.
An official at Timbuktu town hall told AFP that the mosque was undergoing renovations financed by the Aga Khan, head of the world's 15 million Shia Ismaili Muslims. “Because of these renovations, the passage on the north side of the mosque is closed off,' the official said, asking not to be named. “On that side, to get through, the faithful found an improvised alleyway.
“But the alley couldn't take the number of people using it. So there was a stampede. Somebody shouted ‘someone has died' and panic took over,' the official said.
