Dozens were also injured when the driver ‘lost control’ of the vehicle and crashed into a crowd in the southeastern port city of Calabar.
At least seven people were killed and more than two dozen injured when a car crashed into a popular carnival in Calabar, southeast Nigeria, a road safety official said.
A Toyota Camry lost control and plowed into a crowd of onlookers in the port city near the border with Cameroon, Maikano Hassan, local commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps, said in a statement on Wednesday.
Seven people died and 29 were injured on Tuesday, some seriously, according to the statement. The driver survived but was injured.
While local media said “several died”, the BBC put the death toll at 14, adding that the event, which attracts both local visitors and foreign tourists, was held for the first time since COVID-19 restrictions. 19 canceled it during the last two years. .
He quoted police as saying the driver was “drunk” and lost control of the vehicle.
The incident happened when the crowd was watching a motorbike parade in front of a mosque in the Bogobiri district.
Calabar, the capital of Cross River State, hosts one of West Africa’s best-known carnivals every December. The biker show is one of the highlights of the event, known as one of the biggest street parties in Africa.
The official site says that the event attracts almost two million people every year.
Cross River Gov. Ben Ayade urged police to pull over the driver, who he said sped off after the “accident.”
He also ordered them to investigate how the driver was able to enter an area that was supposed to have been closed off for the carnival.
