Preliminary investigations into the stampede at the Asawase Community Centre on Thursday have revealed that the incident was started when the electric metre in the centre caught fire.
Confirming the findings after a meeting with the Municipal Security Council, Asokore Mampong Municipal Chief Executive, Nurudeen Hamidan,noted that the fire started the chaos.
“Just when they were about to leave the scene was when the electricity meter in the premise sparked. You know when electricity meter sparks, it makes noise, some of them misconstrued the noise to be a gunshot and so they started agitating and they started rushing out of the premises. In the process, the stampede happened”, he said in an interview on Citi FM.
Earlier reports indicated the stampede which claimed the nine lives and had six others injured during a concert to climax the Eid-ul Fitr celebration because there was overcrowding at the community centre.
But according to Mr. Hamidan, “The stampede actually happened outside the community center. You know when you come out of the centre, there is a small drain, that collects water from the roofing sheet, and you know in the night, when the meter sparked, obviously the lights go off. So, in the process, some of them fell, and people run over them and that caused the stampede”.
