Dar Es Salaam/Xinhua/UNI: At least 20 worshippers were killed and 16 others injured in a stampede at a church service Saturday evening at a stadium in northern Tanzania, local police said on Sunday.
A group of worshippers packed a stadium in Moshi, a town at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro, and crushed each other as they rushed to get anointed with blessed oil offered by Pastor Boniface Mwamposa.
"The stampede occurred between 7:30 p.m. (1630 GMT) and 8 p.m. (1700 GMT) on Saturday as worshippers rushed to doors of the stadium where the anointing oil was placed, causing the mayhem," Salum Hamduni, Kilimanjaro regional police commander, told Xinhua in a telephone interview.
Hamduni said that police requested Mwamposa who preached at the religious gathering to surrender himself for questioning.
Mwamposa delivered sermons across the country, especially in Dar es Salaam, the commercial capital, attracting huge crowds who believed that his blessed oil could cure diseases and bring prosperity.
Police arrested seven people in connection with the stampede, Hamduni added.
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