An eight-year-old girl was killed and eight people were injured in a stampede at the Old Mosque in al-Awamiya district of Luxor early Tuesday morning.
Panic erupted among worshipers during Tahajjud prayer after smoke rose from a courtyard adjacent to the mosque.
Eyewitnesses said that women worshipers first saw the smoke, leading them to believe there was a fire inside the mosque and causing them to rush out in a panic.
The Egyptian Ambulance Authority immediately dispatched ambulances to transport the injured to nearby hospitals for treatment.
Security and civil defense forces also headed to the scene to investigate the circumstances of the incident.
Security authorities confirmed that there was no fire inside the mosque, and that the rising smoke was the result of burning waste in a nearby courtyard.
