Pakistani police announced that at least 11 people were killed in the southern city of Karachi on Friday, in a stampede that occurred when a crowd rushed towards a factory where food donations were being distributed on the occasion of Ramadan.

Fida Janwari, a police official in Baldia Town in western Karachi, told AFP that the stampede occurred when needy women and their children flocked to a factory in the neighborhood that was distributing food donations. "There was a panic and people started running," he added.

"When the main door opened, everyone rushed inside," said Fatima Nour, 22, whose sister was killed in the stampede.

An official in the local administration stated that between 600 and 700 people were gathered in the small industrial complex.

The spokesman, Muhammad Faroukh, stated that the bodies of six women and three children were taken to the Governmental Martyr Al Abbasi Hospital.

An official in the "Rescue" association for relief operations told AFP that two other bodies had been transferred to another hospital.

Somaya Sayed Tariq Al-Jarrah confirmed to the police that the death toll reached 11 late on Friday evening.

Among the dead were Asma Ahmed's grandmother, 30, and her niece. "We come to the factory every year for alms," she said. "They started hitting the women with (golf) sticks and pushing them," she added, noting that "chaos reigned everywhere."

Janwari said three of the company's employees were arrested for not informing the police of the distribution in advance, which led to a loss of control over the crowd.

Last week, on the first day of Ramadan, one person was killed and eight injured in northwest Pakistan in a stampede for flour.

Pakistan has been witnessing a severe economic crisis for months, with a rise in basic food prices by almost half, and inflation reaching record levels.

The situation has been exacerbated by the global energy crisis in the wake of the war in Ukraine and floods due to monsoon rains that inundated a third of the country in 2022.

Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif is trying to activate the next tranche of a $6.5 billion loan program concluded in 2019 with the International Monetary Fund.

But the international financial institution is calling for radical reforms, including tax increases and a significant reduction in subsidies, before the tranche is paid.