Seventy others were injured in the incident, which occurred at the end of a sermon given by Imam Osman Madani Haidara.

The stampede happened at the Modibo Keita Stadium, which seats 25,000. The crowd reportedly wanted to be blessed by the imam after the speech, made on the festival of Maouloud, the Prophet Muhammad's birthday.

Most of the dead were crushed against metal fencing as they waited, Mali's minister of interior security and civil protection said.

Relatives gathered at the Gabriel Toure Hospita, trying to find out information about the dead and wounded.