Barricades blamed in Ivory Coast stampede

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast -- Survivors of a stampede that killed 61 people, mostly children and teenagers, after a New Year's Eve fireworks display said yesterday makeshift barricades stopped their moving along a main boulevard, causing the crush of people.

Police said unknown people put tree trunks across the Boulevard de la République where the trampling took place.

"For security, because there were so many important people at the event, we closed certain main streets," said a police officer who was overheard briefing President Alassane Outtara on the incident. The officer said the tree trunks were put out unofficially by people who are not known.

"After the fireworks we reopened the other streets, but we had not yet removed the tree trunks from the Boulevard de la République, in front of the Hotel Tiana near the National Assembly building," she said.

Ouattara ordered three days of national mourning and an investigation into the causes of the tragedy.

Two survivors, in interviews with The Associated Press, indicated why so many died in what would normally be an open area. Some 50,000 people had gathered near the Félix Houphouet Boigny Stadium and elsewhere in the Plateau district to watch the fireworks. As they streamed away from the show some encountered the blockades.

"Near the Justice Palace we were stopped by some people who put blockades of wood in the street," Zoure Sanate, 33, said from her bed in Cocody Hospital. "They told us we must stay in the Plateau area until morning. None of us accepted to stay in Plateau until the morning for a celebration that ended at around 1 a.m.

"Then came the stampede of people behind us," she said. "Two of my kids are in hospital with me, but two others are missing."