[Updated 3:44 p.m. ET] Ivory Coast's president has declared three days of national mourning after a New Year's Day stampede that killed 60 people.
The horror unfolded about 1 a.m. after a New Year's Eve fireworks show in Abidjan, the West African country's largest city and former capital. The dead included 26 children, 28 women and six men, Youth Minister Alain Lobognon reported via Twitter.
Many of the victims were trampled on or suffocated by the surging crowd, a senior fire official said on national television. Rescue workers were at the scene two hours later but could not save the victims, the official AIP news agency said.
President Alassane Ouattara promised a speedy investigation.
"The president of the republic offers his saddest condolences to the families and close relations of the victims and ensures them of his compassion in those painful circumstances," Ouattara's office said in a statement issued Tuesday night.
