Walking in Yemen it killed at least 85 people and injured hundreds of otherswhen crowds flocked to a school to receive 5,000 rials (about $8) in aid offered by a merchant.

The tragedy occurred at night in the old city of Sana’a, the capital of Yemen, which is controlled by the Shia Houthi rebels.

“Three traders were arrested,” a Sanaa security official announced, without giving further details.

Images broadcast by the Houthi-run Al Masirah television network showed a dense crowd of people, with some jumping over others, trying to make way. Others hit those next to them, while men in military uniforms try to push the crowd in the opposite direction.

Another video shows bodies on the ground amid widespread panic.

Some witnesses said shots were fired, which caused the crowd to move, which AFP has not independently confirmed.

“At least 85 people were killed and more than 322 wounded,” said a Houthi official in charge of security in Sanaa. The report has been confirmed by a local health authority official.

“Among the dead are children” and about 50 wounded are being treated in critical condition, added the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The tragedy occurred just days before the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan, and as Yemen hopes to end its years-long war.

“Polycosmia”

Sana’a authorities attributed the trampling to “crowds” on a narrow street in the capital’s old city that leads to a school.

“When the doors opened, the crowd ran towards the stairs leading to the school yard where the distribution would take place,” Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, a member of the rebels’ Supreme Political Council, tweeted.

Rebels have released video showing a child, lying in a hospital bed, saying he was injured when “a huge crowd fell” on him.

According to another eyewitness, the residents of Sana’a had been “informed for almost a week that the money would be given without conditions. Consequently too many people rushed’ to the school.

The stampede is among the deadliest to have occurred around the world in the last ten years. It comes as Yemen’s roughly 30 million people are exhausted after eight years of war.

Amid epidemics, lack of drinking water and famine, more than three-quarters of Yemenis depend on international aid, which is constantly dwindling. In rebel-held areas many civil servants have not been paid for months.

The country has seen several tragedies in recent years, such as in 2016 when 140 people attending a funeral were killed in a raid by the Saudi-led military coalition fighting the Houthis.

In another raid in 2018, a school bus was hit, killing dozens of children.

In January 2022, 70 people were killed in an airstrike on a prison in Sana’a, while 45 migrants died in March of the same year when a fire broke out at a detention center run by rebels.