At least 35 children have died and six others have been seriously injured in a crowd crush at a school fair in Nigeria’s third-largest city of Ibadan.
“Eight persons have since been arrested for their various involvements” in the incident, Adewale Osifeso, a spokesperson for the police command in Oyo state, said in a statement on Thursday.
Among those detained was the main sponsor of the event on Wednesday at the Basorun Islamic highschool, which was organised by the Wings Foundation and Agidigbo FM radio.
A homicide investigation had been opened, Osifeso said.
The Oyo state governor, Seyi Makinde, shared his condolences on X.
“Our hearts remain with the families and loved ones impacted by this tragedy. May the souls of the departed rest in peace,” he wrote on Wednesday.
“We sympathise with the parents whose joy has suddenly been turned to mourning due to these deaths.”
Video footage that appeared to be from the scene showed a large crowd of mostly children looking on as others were being carried away from an open field.
According to local radio, as many as 5,000 young people had been expected at the event, whose programme said children “will win exciting prizes like scholarships and other bountiful gifts”.
There have been several deadly crowd crushes in the country this year. Two students died and 23 were hurt in March as thousands of people gathered for free bags of rice handed out by local authorities at Nasarawa State University in central Nigeria.
Four women were killed later the same month outside the office of a wealthy businessman in the northern city of Bauchi, where they were waiting to collect a cash gift of 5,000 naira (£2.70) to help pay for food during the Ramadan.
Witnesses said members of the crowd pushed to get hold of the money, causing a crush during Nigeria’s worst economic
crisis in a generation.
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