BAMAKO, Feb. 26 (Xinhua) -- A stampede has left 24 people dead including children and at least 20 others injured, some seriously, in Timbuktoo in northwest Mali.
Sources from this holy town told Xinhua on Friday that the incident originated from an old lady who collapsed in one of the town's streets at the fall of darkness the previous day.
She collapsed not far from a public place where a crowd had gathered to listen to the Maouloud sermon, a religious activity to celebrate the birth of Prophet Mohamed.
The passers-by decided to run and save the poor lady and this precipitated the movement of the crowd.
"The people then started running towards all directions certainly thinking that it was a rebel attack. You know that in such a situation, everybody becomes unconscious. The people ran into all directions and those who fell were unfortunately trampled on," said Ha-dara, a well-known figure in Timbuktoo.
The town was in shock on Friday morning following the tragedy.
A hospital source said the toll rose to 24 from 15 confirmed dead earlier in the day, adding some of the injured were in critical condition and needed to be urgently evacuated to the capital Bamako.
"We cannot rule out the fact that the number of those injured will increase because some of them are still hiding in their homes instead of coming to the hospital," local officials said.
"The injured people have been arriving this morning," another hospital source told Xinhua, but did not wish to be named as they were waiting for official communication from the regional authorities.
In Bamako, everybody is trying to get information about their family members.
"I have managed to speak to my family and they all seem to be alive. But they are naturally shocked by this tragedy which took away lives of some of the people they knew," said Alhamady Cisse, a press correspondent in the Malian capital.
Timbuktoo, the City of 333 Saints, is always crowded during the Maouloud festival, when thousands of pilgrims, some natives of the region and others foreigners, come to celebrate the birth of Prophet Mohamed in a big religious ceremony.
A few years back, several heads of state including Moummar Gaddafi of Libya came to celebrate Maouloud in the town.
According to a government official, at least 26 people were killed in a stampede on Thursday at a historic mosque in the northwestern city of Timbuktu, Mali.

"There were 26 killed and 40 wounded," Oumar Sangare, the Internal Ministry spokesman, told Reuters. However, other news agency reports put the death toll as low as fifteen.

An official, who requested to remain anonymous, said the accident could have begun as a result of renovation work on the Djingareyber mosque—which is made primarily of mud, and was built in the fourteenth century. Construction work blocked off some of the roads, and that could have been a factor in the incident. "The mosque is being renovated, financed by the Aga Khan, and the work is carried out by South African specialists," the official told the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency.

"Because of these renovations, the passage on the north side of the mosque is closed off. On that side, to get through, the faithful found an improvised alleyway. But the alley couldn't take the number of people using it. So there was a stampede. Somebody shouted 'someone has died' and panic took over," the same official went on to say.

Others have remarked that rescue services responded "very quickly" to the stampede, and helped the "many injured."

The Xinhua news agency reports the stampede started when an elderly woman fell in one of the town streets near the city's main mosque, where a sermon was being conducted in front of a large crowd; a passersby then rushed to assist the woman, apparently disrupting the crowd's movement and causing the stampede.

"People were circling the mosque, a ritual at each Mouloud the observance of the Prophet Mohammed's birthday and there was a huge crowd build up," commented Mohamed Bandjougou, one of the witnesses to the event, to AFP by telephone. "There were at least fifteen dead. The bodies were taken to the morgue."

Authorities warned the number of injured may actually be higher than reported, saying that "we cannot rule out the fact that the number of those injured will increase because some of them are still hiding in their homes instead of coming to the hospital."  A hospital source commented that some of the people hurt were in critical condition, and needed to be evacuated to the capital, Bamako, as soon as possible.

The mosque's imam, who gave his name as Asseyuti, commented on the incident. "We're in mourning. What happened is a real trauma. We accept the will of God. He gives us life, he takes it away," he said.

According to an official statement, Malian president Amandou Toumani Toure is traveling to Timbuktu from Bamako in light of the stampede.