Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

At least 3 dead in Egypt university stampede | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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CAIRO, (Reuters) – At least three people were killed and more than 100 were injured in a stampede caused by an electrical fire in a university in Egypt’s Nile Delta town of Zagazig on Saturday, security sources said.

The governor of Sharkia province Yehia Abdel Meguid told Egyptian television three people were killed, but security sources said the death toll could be as high as five.

The sources said students in the local branch of al-Azhar University’s women’s college panicked after a fire broke out in a packed lecture hall, and a stampede started with hundreds of students trying to exit the hall.

While the fire did not spread, the commotion led to a general panic throughout the college, and security sources said some of the students leapt from second floor windows to escape the building.