Ten people, including four children, have been killed in a stampede in Nigeria's capital city as a large crowd gathered to collect food items distributed by a local church at a Christmas event, the police said Saturday.

The stampede occurred in the early morning hours at the Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Maitama, a high-brow part of Abuja, from where more than 1,000 people have been evacuated, police spokesman Josephine Adeh said in a statement.