At least 10 persons were crushed to death and over 50 injured on Monday in a stampede during a funeral rite of a political leader in Bangladesh's Chittagong city.

The procession was that of former Mayor Mohiuddin Chowdhury who was also a leader of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's ruling Bangladesh Awami League party, bdnews24.com reported.

The police said the toll could rise as several others were critically injured in the accident. The stampede occurred in Chittagong's Rima Community Centre, one of the 14 venues where the funeral ritual food was arranged, specially for non-Muslim people.

With the crowd swelling out of control, people jostled for space on the ramp outside the entrance forcing some visitors to fall only to be trampled on by those behind, volunteer Anup Das said. He was also injured.

Most of the victims reportedly died from suffocation.

Asked whether enough security measures were taken, Chittagong Police Commissioner Iqbal Bahar said that it was not an issue of security.

"It's not that clashes broke out. There was no lack of security. People have been injured after falling on the ground in the crush of people."

Chowdhury, who had served the city corporation for 16 years, died last Friday at the age of 73.

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