A concert in the DRC capital Kinshasa headlined by Congolese superstar Fally Ipupa turned tragic after eleven people were killed in a stampede.
Among those who lost their lives in the crush at the overcrowded stadium concert were two police offers.
Ipupa said he only heard about the deaths on Sunday morning when he woke up after his performance.
“It pains me. I am from Kinshasa and of course I share in the grief of the families,” he told Reuters in an interview.
The capital’s Stadium of Martyrs was packed beyond its capacity of 80,000 and some of the crowd ended up forcing their way into the VIP and reserved sections, Reuters reporters at the concert said.
Police have recorded “11 deaths, including 10 as a result of suffocation and the crush, and seven hospitalizations,” Interior Minister Daniel Aselo Okito said in a statement.
Security forces earlier fired tear gas to try to disperse violent crowds in the streets outside the stadium where many had gathered ahead of the concert by Kinshasa-born Ipupa.
As reported by The Sauce, another crowd surge in Seoul, South Korea claimed the lives of 154 people including a popular K-pop star Lee Ji-han.
