Jeremy Gahagan
BBC News Live reporter

We're now closing our live coverage of the crush at the school in Yemen.

Very little new information is emerging in the aftermath of the incident, which has led to nearly 80 people being confirmed killed so far.

What we do know is the crush happened at a school in the capital Sanaa, where hundreds had gathered to receive charity for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Local Houthi authorities - who have controlled the city since 2015 as part of the ongoing civil war in Yemen - say an investigation has been launched and the event's organisers have been detained.

But local witnesses have said Houthi rebel fighters caused the crush, after firing guns into the air as an attempt at crowd control caused mass-panic outside the school.

Joining me on this page were Adam Durbin, Anna Boyd and David Gritten.

Any updates to the number of deaths, or causes of the incident, will be added to our story about the tragedy as they emerge - which is available to read here.

We know that the crush happened after hundreds of people packed into a narrow street leading to the back entrance of the Maeen School in order to receive charity handouts worth about $9 (£7) each from a local merchant.

A spokesman for the Houthi-run interior ministry blamed the incident on overcrowding caused by the “random distribution” of funds without co-ordination with local officials.

However, two witnesses told the Associated Press that the crush began after armed Houthis fired into the air in an attempt at crowd control. The shots struck an electrical wire and caused it to explode, sparking panic, they added.

Al-Masdar Online, an anti-Houthi local news outlet, also quoted a source who was near the scene at the time as saying that he heard sporadic gunfire from several automatic rifles, followed by a flash of light caused by a short circuit, causing people to panic and sparking a stampede.

He said that he could not be sure of the source of the gunfire, but added: "The Houthis are not innocent in this incident."

The source also noted that rebels had previously tried to prevent the local merchant from distributing zakat (alms) and demanded that he hand it over to the Houthi General Zakat Authority, which the merchant had refused to do.

The BBC has been unable to verify the reports of gunfire.

Jake Horton
BBC Reality Check

The BBC has established the site as the Maeen School, near the historic centre of Sanaa. It’s in a busy area of the city, surrounded by many cafes, restaurants and shops.

In videos of the aftermath of the crush, which have been verified by the BBC, you can see several buildings behind the crowds as ambulances arrive.

One building has three tall windows and a red roof with a distinctive red and white pattern below.

Image source, Twitter

You can also see another three-storey white building with several balconies at the front.

We matched both of these buildings to a photo of the school campus on Google maps posted in July 2019. This confirms the crush site as the Maeen School.

Image source, Google Maps

Despite its ancient roots as the crossroads of Africa, the Middle East and Asia, the modern Republic of Yemen is a relatively new state.

It was created after communist South Yemen merged with North Yemen in 1990, following years of strife, but tensions have never been far below the surface.

Yemen has been in state of political crisis since 2011, when a fresh wave of protests in 2011, inspired by the Arab Spring uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, forced President Ali Abdallah Saleh to resign.

Read more about Yemen here.

Yemen's Houthi Prime Minister Abdulaziz Bin Habtour has been visiting survivors in Sanaa's Al Thawra hospital.

He was accompanied by other officials including Health Minister Taha Al-Mutawakel.

Bin Habtour said: "We are firstly checking on the injured and those who died.

"The interior and health minister, members of the public prosecution, the head of the Supreme Judicial Council and all other relevant officials, have proceeded with their legal duties to examine this unfortunate event and to find a serious solution for this to never happen again.

"We are experiencing a great tragedy, a large number of our citizens have died during this stampede."

There are not many images coming out of Yemen following last night's stampede, and most those we have seen are too graphic or distressing to be shared.

Authorities have launched an investigation into the cause, while many relatives of those injured or killed have been anxiously waiting for news.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Reuters

The eight year-long civil war has led to the deaths of thousands.

The UN says both sides in the civil war may have committed war crimes. Both sides deny the allegation.

In 2021, BBC Middle East Editor Jeremy Bowen met terrified children running from civil war and 'ghosts' in Yemen. You can watch his report below.

Image source, EPA

In 2011, a popular uprising in Yemen forced its long-standing authoritarian president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, to hand over power to his deputy, Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi. However, the new president was overwhelmed with Yemen's economic and security problems.

The Iran-aligned rebel Houthi movement took advantage of his weakness.

The seized control of their northern heartland of Saada province in early 2014 and began taking over the capital Sanaa.

The conflict escalated in March 2015, when the rebels attempted to capture the rest of the country. Mr Hadi was forced to flee abroad, and a Saudi-led alliance of Arab states intervened to restore his rule.

The Saudi-led coalition's troops were able to drive the Houthis from southern Yemen that year. However, they have been unable to dislodge them from Sanaa or the north of the country since then.

Yemen's internationally recognised government is still based in the southern port city of Aden. However, it is no longer led by Mr Hadi, who handed over power to an eight-member leadership council in 2022.

You can read more about the war, its causes and hopes for it's end, here.

Image source, Reuters

Deadly crushes when crowd control fails and mass-panic set in are thankfully rare.

The worst in recent times took place in Mecca, Saudi Arabia in 2015, after a massive stampede during the Hajj left 2,300 people dead.

In October last year, more than 150 died in South Korea's capital Seoul, when thousands of people became trapped in narrow streets during a Halloween party.

Just a few weeks earlier, 135 people in Indonesia died at a football stadium in Malang, East Java - among those killed were more than 40 children.

Police used tear gas on fans and people were crushed or suffocated while trying to use closed or narrow doors out of the venue.

In October 2013, at least 115 people died at a Hindu religious festival near a temple in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.

Most of the victims were trampled or drowned and around 20,000 people were on a bridge over the Sindh River at the time.

The UN says that tens of thousands of people in Yemen are currently living in famine-like conditions, while some six million more are on the verge of famine.

It's the world's worst humanitarian crisis, it says.

Some 4.5 million people, that's one in seven of the population, have been displaced by the civil war, while 24.1 million people, 80% of the population, are in need of humanitarian aid and protection.

Image source, EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

The UN estimates that by the start of 2022, the conflict had caused over 377,000 deaths, with 60% the result of hunger, lack of healthcare and unsafe water.

It says more than 11,000 children are known to have been killed or wounded as a direct result of the fighting.

On top of that, Yemen has also suffered from one of the largest cholera outbreaks ever recorded, with 2.5 million suspected cases and about 4,000 related deaths since 2016.

Image source, Reuters

Video footage on social media shows chaotic scenes outside the school in the Bab al-Yemen area of Sanaa. A lot of it is distressing so we won't post it here.

On top of at least 78 deaths, many people were also injured - including 13 currently in critical condition, officials in the capital said.

Hundreds of people had crowded into the school to receive donations of about $9 (£7) per person, Reuters news agency reports.

A spokesman for the Houthi-run interior ministry blamed the crush on the "random distribution" of funds without co-ordination with local officials.

But according to two eyewitnesses who spoke to the Associated Press news agency, external, Houthi fighters fired into the air in an attempt at crowd control, apparently striking an electrical wire which resulted in an explosion, causing further panic.

Jeremy Gahagan
BBC News Live reporter

Dozens of people have died in Yemen, following a crush at a school distributing charity for Ramadan.

At least 78 have died in Yemen's capital Sanaa, where hundreds were crowding into the school to receive donations for the Muslim holy month.

Those responsible have been detained, local Houthi authorities say - but witnesses say fighters from the rebel faction who have controlled the city for years caused the panic by firing into the air as an attempt at crowd control.

Stick with us.