88 killed in stampede at Manila game show
(AP)
Updated: 2006-02-04 13:34

A stampede broke out early Saturday outside a stadium near Manila, killing at least 88 people, and injuring 280, the Philippine Red Cross reported.

Victims of a stampede lie on a street in Manila February 4, 2006. At least Eighty-eight people were killed  and 280 injured in a stampede at a stadium in the Philippine capital, Manila, on Saturday as they lined up to get tickets for a popular television gameshow, police and local officials said.[Reuters]

About 30,000 people were waiting to get inside the stadium for the program "Wowowee" when the mayhem erupted, said Vicente Eusebio, the mayor of Pasig, the Manila suburb where the stampede occurred.

The mayor said the melee erupted as the crowd pushed and surged toward the gates, thinking they were open, pinning and trampling those in front. One survivor said some people in the crowd became rowdy when they could not enter.

"The gates were being partially opened then shut," said Myrna Britania, 42, who spoke at a hospital where the injured were being treated. "The raffle tickets can be obtained at the gate so everyone was in a hurry. There was pushing and people in front of the gate were crushed."

Britania, who had spent all night in line, said "people at the back of the line were pushing not knowing there were already people dead lying on the ground in front."

Eusebio and police denied reports that the stampede was caused by a bomb scare.

Merquieades Salazar cried over the body of his wife, who was among those crushed. Salazar, 45, said the couple was jobless and wanted to try their luck at winning a raffle with a jackpot equivalent to $384.

"In the desire to win money, she is the one I lost," Salazar sobbed as he stroked his dead wife's hair.