At least 11 people were killed in the southern city of Karachi on Friday in a crowd stampede towards a factory where food donations were being distributed for the month of Ramadan, police said.
Fidaa Janwari, an official with the Baldea Town police in western Karachi, told AFP the stampede occurred when needy women flocked with their children to a neighbourhood factory distributing food donations, after which "panic prevailed and people started running".
Fatima Noor, 22, whose sister was killed in the stampede, said: "When the main door opened, everyone rushed inside."
A local administration official said between 600 and 700 people were in the small industrial complex when the stampede occurred.
Spokesman Mohamed Farroukh reported that the bodies of 6 women and 3 children were transferred to the government hospital Shahid Abbasi.
Mourning among the families of those killed in the stampede (Reuters)
An official with the rescue group RESCUE told AFP that two more bodies had been taken to another hospital.
Somaya Sayed Tariq, a police surgeon, confirmed the death toll stood at 11 late on Friday.
Janwari added that three of the company's employees were stopped for not informing the police of the distribution in advance, resulting in a loss of control of the crowd.
Crying and sadness among the families of those killed in the stampede (Reuters)
Former stampede
Last week, on the first day of Ramadan, one person was killed and 8 injured in northwest Pakistan in a stampede for flour.
Pakistan has been in the grip of a severe economic crisis for months, with prices of basic foodstuffs almost halving and inflation at record levels.
The situation has been exacerbated by the global energy crisis following the war in Ukraine and floods due to monsoon rains that flooded a third of the country in 2022.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif is trying to activate the next tranche of a $6.5 billion loan program struck in 2019 with the International Monetary Fund, but the International Finance Corporation is demanding radical reforms, including tax increases and a deep cut in subsidies, before paying the tranche.