MONROVIA, Jan 20, 2022 (BSS/AFP) - A stampede at a Christian prayer 
gathering in Liberia's capital Monrovia has killed at least 29 people, police 
said on Thursday, adding that the death toll may rise. 

   The disaster occurred on Wednesday night or during the early hours of 
Thursday morning, according to media in the West African country. 

   Police spokesman Moses Carter told AFP the death toll was provisional and 
"may increase" because a number of people were in critical condition. He 
added that children were included among the dead. 

   Details about the incident remained sketchy. Local media said the event 
was a Christian prayer gathering -- known in Liberia as a "crusade" -- held 
in a football pitch in New Kru Town, a working-class suburb of Monrovia. 

   Such gatherings typically gather thousands of people in Liberia, a highly 
religious country where a majority of the population of five million are 
Christians. 

   Pastor Abraham Kromah, a popular preacher, staged the two-day prayer event 
in New Kru Town and attracted large crowds, according to images circulating 
on social media. 

   Robbers wielding knives and machetes attacked the worshippers, local media 
reported, suggesting that this may have triggered the stampede. 

   Eye witness Emmanuel Gray, 26, told AFP he heard "heavy noise" towards the 
end of the event, and saw several dead bodies. 

   Accidents and disasters are relatively common in Liberia. 

   A stampede at a similar prayer event in the centre of Liberia in November 
2021 killed two infants, and hospitalised several others, according to local 
media. 

   Seventeen people were also reported missing after a shipwreck off the 
country's coast in July last year. 

   And about 50 people died in a mine collapse in the northwestern Liberia in 
May 2020. 

   Liberia, Africa's oldest republic, is an impoverished country that is 
still recovering after back-to-back civil wars between 1989-2003, which 
killed about 250,000 people. 

   It was also ravaged by the 2014-2016 West Africa Ebola epidemic. 

   According to the World Bank, 44 percent of Liberia's population lives on 
less than $1.9 a day. 

   The UN's Human Development Index, a barometer of prosperity, ranks Liberia 
175th out of 189 countries and territories.