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19 killed in German music festival stampede

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-07-25 12:39
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19 killed in German music festival stampede

An injured woman is carried to an ambulance after a stampede at the Love Parade "The art of Love" in the western German city of Duisburg July 24, 2010. [Photo/Agencies]

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The death toll from a stampede at a "Love Parade" techno music festival in Germany rose to 19 on Sunday and police pursued an investigation into how the mass panic occurred.

Investigators and organisers scheduled a news conference for 1000 GMT on their findings so far regarding Saturday's incident in an entrance tunnel to a former rail station in the west German city of Duisburg where the event was held.

"We are currently working with the organisers and collecting evidence in hopes of reconstructing the events, but it will be labour- and time-intensive," police spokesman Christoph Gilles said by telephone on Sunday.

Earlier Reporting:

BERLIN - The death toll from a stampede on Saturday at a music festival in western Germany's Duisburg city has risen to 18, with 16 people confirmed killed on the scene and two others succumbing to injuries in hospital, local police said.

The previous toll was 15. There were also 80 others injured, 45 of them seriously, as a crowd of thousands was blocked inside a tunnel and a mass panic occurred during the Love Parade, a popular electronic music festival, according to Duisburg police.

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The police said at a press conference that the stampede happened shortly after 5 pm local time, as people were pushing and crushing each other in an entrance tunnel leading to the event's main stage.

Police said that some people were killed and hurt after "climbing over the barriers and falling to the ground."

Local police have opened a hotline to help contact the relatives of the victims. The names and nationalities of the dead remained unknown.

Wang Xin, chairman of the Chinese students' association in Duisburg, said on the phone that some Chinese students also attended the event, but so far he has received no report of any casualties.

Wang said Duisburg was a relatively small city with a population of 500,000, and its roads were generally narrow.

"It is imaginable that the city has exceeded its limits when more than 1 million people were pouring into the streets and plaza and caused chaos," he said.

Both German President Christian Wulff and Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed their sorrow and shock over the tragedy.

"In this difficult time, I express my sympathy and sorrow for the families of the victims ... I am appalled and saddened by the suffering and pain," said Merkel in a statement.

"Such a catastrophe is terrible, which caused death, suffering and pain during a peaceful festival of joyful young people from many countries," Wulff said. He called for an immediate investigation into the incident.

TV footage showed tens of ambulances were rushing to the tunnel and several people were resuscitated on the floor near the entrance. Some people were bruised in the face, arms and back, looking scared and tired, as they walked in lines out of the tunnel, which is 500 meters to 600 meters long.

German media reported that the mass panic broke out after authorities tried to prevent thousands of people from getting into the parade area since it was already overcrowded, but some people disobeyed and still headed into the entrance of the tunnel.

Some witnesses in the tunnel said that they felt being strongly pushed from behind, while the road ahead was firmly blocked.

"People kept trying to get into the tunnel for about 10 minutes, then they realized what happened and turned back," one witness called Udo Sandhoefer told reporters.

German television ZDF reported that at the beginning of the panic, emergency workers were in trouble getting close to the injured, although nine helicopters were sent to monitor the situation from the air.

Duisburg railway spokesman Udo Schulte Kamp said the city's main station was temporarily closed for safety reason, as some people went onto the tracks or near the railway area after the panic.

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