Several residents from the commercial capital Dar es Salaam have reported relatives who are missing or were injured during the paying of last respects to the late President John Magufuli.

Rose John, 53, is among those who reportedly lost their lives in circumstances that are directly linked to the exercise of paying last respects to the fallen leader.

Information gathered by The Citizen shows that Ms Rose John, Yvonne, Elias and Doreen Samuel left their Mbezi home as early at 5am for Uhuru Stadium, seeking to become among the first mourners to pay their last respects to the late Magufuli.

“We left home 5am and arrived at the stadium and were directed to a place to sit while waiting for the body to be brought in for the program,” the vividly sorrowful Ms Yvonne Elias told The Citizen.

They wanted to pay their last respects before going for prayers.

“As soon as the body was brought, people began to be allowed to enter the stadium and directly lined up… We seemed to have been forgotten despite having been their hours earlier, so we decided to stand and complain,” she narrates while crying over the death of the president.

Because the number of mourners who had started complaining and trying to force their way into the stadium was huge, members of the security personnel had to intervene.

A group of people gathered at a place, depriving themselves of fresh air.

With no enough air, we group was told to sit down but some refused to do so because they felt oppressed because of having been there early.

“As a result, my sister (Rose John) obeyed and sat down until we could not see her because there were so many people. I did my best and I was able to jump over the existing fence and got out of the stadium,” she said.

“After a while I did not see my sisters, including the late Rose. I called one of them and she came to me and together we started looking for our colleague because we could not find her in the first place,” she explains while uncontrollably crying.

Yvonne Elias and Doreen Samuel then started searching for Rose John’s whereabouts.

“While searching, we were shown to a certain room where collapsed people were being placed and this is where the attendants told us to go to Temeke Hospital,” she explains.

The two headed to Temeke Hospital where, after sometime, they were allowed to search for their colleague in the wards.

“We checked and checked but we could not find her and later, we were told to go and look for her in the mortuary where we found her dead body,” she explains.