School stampede kills 14 Kenyan children

Fourteen children have been killed in a stampede as they rushed down a staircase at the end of classes at a primary school in western Kenya.

At least 39 more pupils were badly hurt in the incident at the Kakamega Primary School, the Daily Nation newspaper said, citing Western Region Police Commander Peris Kimani.

Education Minister George Magoha confirmed the death toll to Citizen TV.

"We lost 14 of them," he said.

"One life (lost) is a life too many."

The Daily Nation said that some of the children fell from the third floor as they ran.

Red Cross Kenya spokesman Peter Abwao said the children had been heading home.

"As kids were going home from school there was a stampede as they were going down the stairs," he said.

"It's a three-storey building, it's a classroom block."

Anxious parents waited outside the Kakamega hospital for news of their children, Daily Nation pictures showed.

© RAW 2020