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4 students dead and over 70 injured in Bolivia university stampede
The Anews reported, citing the AFP, a stampede at a university in Bolivia Monday (May 9) left four students dead and more than 70 injured when a tear gas grenade was detonated during an assembly.
Five of the injured were in intensive care, said Roxana Choque, public prosecutor of the Potosi region in Bolivia's southeast where the Tomas Frias university is based.
Rector Pedro Lopez told reporters, hundreds of students had gathered in an enclosed sports arena of the university for student council elections.
According to regional police chief Bernardo Isnado, a heated debate ensued, and at least one student detonated a tear gas cannister, provoking the stampede.
The institution, Lopez added, was "in mourning."
Choque said many of the wounded had suffered multiple injuries, including broken bones, and the deceased had died of asphyxiation.
The public hospital of the city of some 270,000 inhabitants was overrun with wounded and relatives seeking information on missing students.
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A woman, who did not give her name, sobbed as she told local media her daughter was in intensive care.
"Are they going to give me my daughter alive?" she asked through tears.
An official of the institution urged dozens of family members jostling for space and news: "Please be patient. The hospital is overrun. There is no space."
The government has announced an investigation into the events.
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Fights between students in Bolivia are not uncommon, and tear gas had been deployed in previous confrontations.
In March last year, 12 students died at a different university when a railing collapsed during another assembly confrontation.
Source: anews
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