At least 14 people have been killed and 24 others injured after a vehicle ploughed into crowds watching bikers at a popular carnival in Nigeria\u2019s southern port city of Calabar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Eyewitnesses said that a speeding driver lost control of the car.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pictures shared online in the immediate aftermath of the incident show bodies strewn across the street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The month-long annual carnival, which features several events, has become a big draw since it was launched in 2004.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Describing itself as Africa\u2019s biggest street party, it attracts local and foreign tourists throughout December.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This year\u2019s event was special because it was the first since the Covid pandemic, which had forced its cancellation for the last two years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tuesday\u2019s incident took place during the popular bikers\u2019 parade on one of the major carnival routes which had been closed to vehicle traffic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The event features riders including celebrities from across the country, some adorned in colourful costumes, performing stunts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The police said a drunk driver \u2013 who has been arrested \u2013 had lost control of their car and ploughed into the crowd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A father of a 15-year-old boy who was injured in the incident told the BBC that the car was being driven \u201crecklessly\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe driver had been swerving from left to right and then when he got to where the crowd stood, he started spraying money on the road. The crowd rushed to pick up the money, which is when the ugly incident took place,\u201d Musa Kutama said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His son Abdulsalam Musa Kutama survived but with scratches to his face and cuts to his thigh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The teenager was among 24 people who were rushed to Cross River state\u2019s navy hospital and University of Calabar teaching hospital for treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe were at the navy hospital last night \u2013 they treated him and gave us some drugs, later discharging him. He is currently at home healthy and good,\u201d Mr Kutama said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A statement from the state\u2019s governor, Professor Ben Ayade, said the government was investigating how the car passed through the many security barricades which barred access to public traffic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Prof Ayade cancelled the rest of the bikers\u2019 parade but other events planned for the rest of the carnival \u2013 which is set to end on New Year\u2019s Eve with a fireworks display \u2013 will still go ahead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
At least 14 people have been killed and 24 others injured after a vehicle ploughed into crowds watching bikers at a popular carnival in Nigeria\u2019s southern port city of Calabar. Eyewitnesses said that a speeding driver lost control of the car. Pictures shared online in the immediate aftermath of the incident show bodies strewn across […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":28835,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[80],"tags":[4836,1648,2735,9170,9169,7568,13175,11961,9331,5222,9171,10739,7583,6144,12011,11638,2264,6825,11111,9515,10634,5612,10349,9213,434,11973,6332,5485,421,11082,10313,9110,5655,11325,5594,8206,214,6348,3954,594],"class_list":["post-28834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-access","tag-africa","tag-bbc","tag-bikers","tag-calabar","tag-cancellation","tag-car","tag-celebrities","tag-city","tag-covid","tag-crowd","tag-display","tag-driver","tag-drugs","tag-festival","tag-forced","tag-government","tag-hospital","tag-injured","tag-killed","tag-lost","tag-money","tag-navy","tag-new-year","tag-nigeria","tag-one","tag-online","tag-pandemic","tag-police","tag-port","tag-professor","tag-river","tag-security","tag-street","tag-traffic","tag-treatment","tag-university","tag-us","tag-will","tag-who"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}