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ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) — A crowd stampeded after leaving a New Year’s fireworks show early Tuesday in Ivory Coast’s commercial centre, killing 61 people — many of them youths — and injuring more than 200, rescue workers said.

The death toll was expected to rise, the officials said.

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Thousands had gathered at the Felix Houphouet Boigny Stadium in Abidjan’s Plateau district to see the fireworks. After the show, the crowds poured onto the Boulevard de la Republic by the Hotel Tiama at about 1 a.m., said Col. Issa Sako of the fire department rescue team.

“The flood of people leaving the stadium became a stampede which led to the deaths of more than 60 and injured more than 200,” Sako told Ivory Coast state TV.

Most of those killed were between 8 and 15 years old, he said.

Desperate parents went to the city morgue, the hospital and to the stadium to try to find children who are still missing.

Mamadou Sanogo was searching for his 9-year-old son, Sayed.