DHAKA: A stampede during a Ramadan charity handout left at least 27 people dead in Bangladesh on Friday as hundreds of desperately poor people tried to get their hands on free clothing, police said.

Those killed included 22 women and a child dead the people stormed the home of a businessman for a charity handout during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, police officer Kamrul Islam said.

Another 30 were injured and rushed to a hospital in Mymensingh, a town 115 km north of the capital, Dhaka, he said.

The crowd gathered outside the tobacco businessman’s home around 4 a.m. and stormed in when the gates were opened to collect free clothing, Islam said. Twenty-two women and one child were killed, he said. Survivors said there were about 1,000 people, mostly elderly women, in front of the house.

Ambia Begum, 45, went with seven female relatives at dawn. One of them died in the stampede.

“Oh Allah, why did I come here? Why?” she wailed as the body of her 60-year-old relative was retrieved.

The businessman distributes clothes every year ahead of Eid Al-Fitr, the festival marking the end of Ramadan.

Authorities detained six people, including the businessman, who did not request police presence at his house for the distribution. Stampedes are common at religious places and during charity handouts in South Asian countries.

The stampede in the northern city of Mymensingh erupted when crowds of people tried to force their way into a factory compound through a small gate after massing outside before dawn, according to local police chiefs.

Television footage from the site showed scenes of utter devastation, with hundreds of torn and blood-spattered sandals abandoned at the gate of the chewing tobacco factory, which is located around 120 km north of the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka.

“We have so far recovered 24 bodies. Most of the dead are poor and emaciated women and two children,” Mymensingh police chief Moinul Haque told AFP, putting the number of injured at more than 50.

Kamrul Islam, the senior officer at a police station near the factory, said the death toll was likely to rise further while local media said scores of people had also been injured.

“We have handed over 24 bodies to the relatives,” Islam said.

Many of the victims were ferried by cycle rickshaws to a nearby hospital with television footage showing relatives rushing through the entrance and corridors, cradling the lifeless bodies of their loved ones in their arms.

“My wife had gone there to collect some clothes for herself and for our children,” Mohammad Robiul, a rickshaw-puller, told the Somoy Television news channel.

“I don’t know what will happen to my kids,” Robiul, who lost his wife in the tragedy, added before bursting into tears.

A witness told the bdnews24 website that the stampede began when a number of people fell to the ground as a melee erupted.

“As the gate was opening, everybody ran toward it, pushing and shoving each other and then they started falling,” said rickshaw-puller Dulal Mia.

“Once one person fell to the ground, another 15 to 20 people fell, too. The people got killed when they closed the gate.”

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina expressed deep shock over the tragedy, according to the state-run BSS news agency.

In a condolence message, the Prime Minister offered prayers and “conveyed profound sympathy to the bereaved families,” the agency said.

Meanwhile, the religious affairs ministry said it would pay each family 10,000 taka (around $125) to cover the cost of the funerals of their relatives.

Police and local officials said that the owner of the factory and six other people have been arrested for failing to ensure public safety.