A fire broke out in a tent at a wedding party in eastern Pakistan, triggering a stampede and wall collapse that killed 27 women and children, police said yesterday. The bride was among the dead.

More than 30 other people were injured when the wedding party turned into a tragedy late Saturday night in Jhok Utra, a village about 120 kilometers west of the city of Multan, said area police officer Khadim Hussain Khadim.

A high-powered electric light apparently sparked the fire in the large canvas tent where more than 100 women and children, many singing wedding songs, were present, Khadim said.

He said 15 women and six children died of burns from the flaming and collapsing tent, from injuries cause by a stampede when people tried to escape, and from debris from a nearby newly built wall that toppled in the stampede, he said.

The death toll increased to 27 after one child and five women died of their injuries late Saturday. Two women died of head injuries at a hospital in Dera Ghazi Khan and three others who lost their lives enroute to a hospital in Multan, another major regional city, Khadim said.

A woman, who identified herself with a single name, Fatima, 32, was hit in the leg by debris. Fatima described how a sudden fire near the roof of the tent unleashed a stampede where dozens of women tried to squeeze through the tent's door, tipped into a narrow street about one meter below the tent's floor and then a wall came crushing down on top of them.

The bride who was in her 20s was among the dead, Khadim said. The groom was not hurt as he was sitting with male guests in a separate tent that was not damaged.

(China Daily December 18, 2006)