The stampede was triggered when police fired teargas and warning shots to disperse anti-government protesters at the festival.
Police in Ethiopia's Oromiya region fired teargas and warning shots to disperse anti-government protesters at a religious festival, triggering a stampede that the opposition party said killed at least 52 people.- People extract an injured man from a ditch after a deadly stampede in Bishoftu.
- Half a dozen people, also motionless, were also seen being taken by pick-up truck to a hospital, one witness said.
- The witnesses said they saw people dragging out a dozen or more victims, showing no obvious sign of life.
- When police fired teargas and guns into the air, crowds fled and created a stampede, some of them plunging into a deep ditch, witnesses said.
- Some protesters waved the red, green and yellow flag of the Oromo Liberation Front, a rebel group branded a terrorist' organization by the government, witnesses said.
- Crowds chanted we need freedom' and we need justice', preventing community elders, deemed close to the government, from delivering their speeches at the festival.
- Thousands of people had gathered for the annual Irreecha festival of thanksgiving in the town of Bishoftu, about 40 km (25 miles) south of the capital Addis Ababa.
- Sporadic protests have erupted in Oromiya in the last two years, initially sparked by a land row but increasingly turning more broadly against the government.
- The government did not give a precise death toll resulting from chaotic scenes during the annual festival where some people chanted slogans against the government and waved a rebel group's flag.
Police in Ethiopia\'s Oromiya region fired teargas and warning shots to disperse anti-government protesters at a religious festival, triggering a stampede that the opposition party said killed at least 52 people.
The stampede was triggered when police fired teargas and warning shots to disperse anti-government protesters at the festival.
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