An electrical explosion at Barthélémy Boganda High School triggered a stampede that left at least 29 students dead and about 260 injured as nearly 5,000 candidates sat national baccalaureate exams in Central African Republic’s capital, Bangui, officials said on Friday.
Hospital director Abel Assaye said most victims were crushed while fleeing through a single doorway after a ground-floor transformer under repair blew up and filled the building with smoke.
President Faustin-Archange Touadéra declared three days of national mourning and ordered free treatment for the injured, while Education Minister Aurelien-Simplice Kongbelet-Zimgas suspended further exams pending an investigation.
Power failures and poorly maintained infrastructure are common in the conflict-ravaged nation, where government forces backed by Russian contractors battle rebel groups that still control much of the countryside.