Seventeen people have been killed and dozens of others injured in a stampede following the end of an overnight church vigil in eastern Nigeria, a government spokesman says.
"We have visited the hospital in Nkpor and found 17 corpses that were brought in from the scene of the disaster," spokesman Mike Udah told AFP.
Local media reports said the death toll from Saturday morning's stampede could be higher, claiming that up to 28 people had been killed at St Dominic's Catholic Church.
There was no immediate known cause for the stampede which happened in the grounds of the church as followers celebrated an overnight vigil to mark All Saints' Day.
Hours earlier the event had been attended by the local Anambra state governor, Peter Obi. He later returned to the scene of the tragedy and visited the injured in hospital, promising to set up an inquiry to establish the cause of the tragedy.
