New Year's horror as 61 people including 26 children crushed to death and dozens hurt in stampede at Ivory Coast fireworks display

At least 61 people were crushed to death in a stampede at a New Year's Eve fireworks display in Ivory Coast's main city of Abidjan, authorities said today.

The incident happened outside the Felix Houphouet Boigny Stadium at about 2am in the Plateau district of the city.

The dead included 26 children, 28 women and six men, according to Minister of Youth Alain Lobognon after visiting the hospital morgue.

Initial reports said a further 200 people had been injured, but Interior Minister Hamed Bakayoko later said the figure was closer to 40.

The official AIP news agency earlier said the victims were all children, ranging from eight to 15 years old

'They were mostly from Abidjan, the country's largest city and former capital, it said, according to CNN.

One of the injured, speaking at a hospital, said security forces had arrived to break up the crowd, triggering a panic in which many people fell over and were trampled.

President Alassane Ouattara, visiting injured people at the hospital, called the incident a national tragedy and said an investigation was underway to determine what happened.

A Reuters correspondent said blood stains and abandoned shoes littered the scene outside the stadium on Tuesday morning.

'My two children came here yesterday. I told them not to come but they didn't listen. They came when I was sleeping. What will I do?' said Assetou Toure, a cleaner.

She did not know if her children had escaped unhurt.

The incident was the worst of its kind in Abidjan since 2010, when a stampede at a stadium during a football match killed 18 people.

Ivory Coast, once a stable economic hub for West Africa, is struggling to recover from a 2011 civil war in which more than 3,000 people were killed.

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