Hundreds Injured In Stampede For Jobs In Malawi

The health authorities in Malawi's northern city of Mzuzu say 158 people have received treatment for various injuries they suffered following a stampede that ensued when thousands of mostly young people reported for government job interviews.

The health ministry announced that it was hiring hundreds of health workers to go to rural communities as health surveillance assistants (HSA).

Applicants were told to attend walk-in interviews at various centres across the country.

Tens of thousands thronged interview centres in the capital, Lilongwe, and in the southern city of Blantyre.

But it was in the city of Mzuzu, in the north, where a huge stampede resulted in injuries.

A spokesperson for Mzuzu Central Hospital - the area's referral hospital - confirmed that 158 people were being treated with no deaths reported.