Johannesburg university stampede kills one

Johannesburg university stampede kills one

One person has died after a stampede broke out among crowds of people trying to enroll at a university in the South African city of Johannesburg.

According to a spokesman of the University of Johannesburg (UJ), Herman Esterhuizen, "there was a person that was deceased.”

The victim was said to be the mother of a prospective student.

Reports say more than 180,000 high school graduates are expected to be turned away from South Africa's nine top universities this year.

It said about 74,000 students would fail to win a place at the University of Johannesburg alone.

Tuesday's incident occurred as students queued for last-minute places at the university, registrar Marie Muller said.

Applicants waited through the night and the stampede apparently happened just after the main gate was opened at 07:30 local time (05:30 GMT), emergency services spokeswoman Nana Radebe was quoted as saying.

BBC/Cokey