Stampede reportedly kills 9 in Ghana during celebration marking end of Ramadan

Nine people died Wednesday night during a stampede at a party marking the end of Ramadan, the BBC reported, citing local media.

One witness told media that a power outage caused a panic at the community center. Another person reportedly said the doors at the center were locked.

Muslims from around the world are celebrating the Eid al-Fitr holiday, when families the mark the end of the holy month of Ramadan and its daytime fasting.

For the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims, Eid al-Fitr is second only to Eid al-Adha, which comes around two months later.

Ordinarily a festive occasion, this year' Eid comes after a month of attacks by Islamic extremists that killed more than 350 people in several countries, including a suicide truck bomb in Iraq that claimed at least 175 lives and a suicide bombing outside the Prophet Muhammad's mosque in Saudi Arabia, one of Islam's holiest sites.

Wars are raging in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Yemen, as tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran exacerbate political conflicts throughout the Middle East. The two powers have cast their rivalry in corrosive sectarian terms, with Saudi Arabia positioning itself as the champion of Islam's more numerous Sunnis and Iran claiming to lead the faith's minority Shiites.

The Associated Press contributed to this report