Title: Love parade cancelled for good --- 21 killed, 500 injured in mass panic at Germany's Love Parade Source:
Yahoo from AP URL Source:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100724 ... /eu_germany_love_parade_deaths Published:Jul 24, 2010 Author:MICHAEL SOHN and VANESSA GERA, Associated Press Writers Post Date:2010-07-24 14:58:22 by Robin Keywords:None Views:1889 Comments:9
DUISBURG, Germany – A stampede inside a tunnel crowded with techno music fans crushed 15 people to death and injured dozens at the Love Parade festival in western Germany on Saturday.
Other revelers initially kept partying at the event in Duisburg, near Duesseldorf, unaware of the deadly panic that started when police tried to prevent thousands more people from entering the already-jammed parade grounds.
Police are still trying to determine exactly what happened at the event that drew hundreds of thousands of people, but the situation was "very chaotic," police commissioner Juergen Kieskemper said.
He said just before the stampede occurred at about 5 p.m. (1500 GMT, 11 a.m. EDT), police had closed off the area where the parade was being held because it was already overcrowded. They told revelers over loudspeakers to turn around and walk back in the other direction before the panic broke out, he said.
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Ten people were killed Saturday when chaos broke out at a music festival in Duisburg, Germany, police said.
It's unclear what sparked the mass panic at "Love Parade 2010" as people tried to enter the festival site in the early evening, police spokesman Werner Friese said.
Fifteen others were injured, he said.
The festival was supposed to take place from 2 p.m. (8 a.m. ET) to midnight. As of 6 p.m., the entrance remained closed and people inside the venue were leaving the area.
The first images/news as broadcasted by WDR, Germany. 45 Schwehrverletzten. 45 heavy injured.
Mass panic Love Parade 2010 Duisburg, Massenpanik, 15 Toten, 15 Killed. Germany.
webninjai | July 24, 2010
Love Parade 2010 - Duisburg - Germany - 30 live cameras, uau!
RussiaToday | July 24, 2010
At least 15 people have been crushed to death in a stampede at the Love Parade music festival in the German city of Duisburg. It happened when police tried to block a tunnel to prevent overcrowding. Despite the situation being described by authorities as chaotic, the festival's continuing. It's one of Europe's largest techno-music events, attracting fans from all over the world.
itnnews | July 24, 2010
A stampede inside a tunnel crowded with techno music fans has crushed 15 people to death at Germany's famed Love Parade festival. . Follow us on twitter at http://twitter.com/itn_news .
By Michael Sohn And Vanessa Gera, Associated Press Writers
DUISBURG, Germany – Crowds of people streaming into a techno music festival surged through an already jammed entry tunnel on Saturday, setting off a panic that killed 18 people and injured 80 at an event meant to celebrate love and peace.
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AlJazeeraEnglish | July 24, 2010
At least 17 people have been killed at a music festival in Germany.
A stampede broke out in a tunnel after authorites tried to stop people from entering the area.
Around 1.4 million people were attending the event in the town of Duisburg near the city of Dusseldorf.
itnnews | July 24, 2010
Mobile phone footage of the tragic events at the Love Parade dance music festival in the German city of Duisburg,. . Follow us on twitter at http://twitter.com/itn_news .
At least 18 people have been trampled to death on their way to attend the Loveparade techno music festival in the western German city of Duisburg on Saturday.
The tragedy occurred in a tunnel on the way to the festival grounds as police were trying to prevent people from entering the overcrowded site. Thousands of fans had been walking along a hundred-meter pathway toward the festival for several hours, many of them intoxicated.
According to eyewitnesses, people were unable to move forward or backward, sparking a panic and stampede. At least nine women and six men were killed, and others remain in critical condition.
Duisburg police commissioner Juergen Kieskemper described the situation as "very chaotic," and said they were still trying to determine exactly what happened.
City authorities earlier confirmed that 15 people had died and said an additional 80 were injured in the tunnel. Facing the crush of the crowd, paramedics had difficulty getting through to the site. Police later said that 16 people had died at the scene and that a further two had died of their injuries in hospital.
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itnnews | July 25, 2010
Scenes from the morning after in Duisburg, as at least 19 people die in a stampede at a techno music festival. . Follow us on twitter at http://twitter.com/itn_news .
BERLIN — A stampede inside a tunnel at a popular techno music festival killed 19 people and injured over 340 on Saturday, police officials said Sunday
It was unclear exactly what set off the panic among the throngs of young people squeezing into the tunnel leading to festival grounds in the western German city of Duisburg, but the police said they had tried to close off the area because of overcrowding just before the stampede.
Hannelore Kraft, the premier of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia expressed shock and said an investigation would be opened in order to establish the reasons for the catastrophe. Duisberg is a major industrial city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany’s most populous state.
The police reported telling the crowd to turn around and walk in the other direction before the panic broke out.
The scene was so chaotic that other festival attendees, unaware of the deaths, kept dancing and listening to music for some time, news services said.
Spokesman Frank Kopatschek told the news agency DPA on Saturday evening that "the city of Duisburg’s action committee has decided not to end the festival for now, for safety reasons." Mr. Kopatschek said the city was concerned about preventing further panic among the 1.4 million people in attendance.
Rescuers reported delays in reaching injured people because of the size of the crowd.
“It’s a horror situation, especially because rescuers cannot get through to those injured,” Thomas Muenten, a reporter for ZDF, the German public television channel, said in the early evening. “The people literally trampled each other on the way into this tunnel.”
Photos and television images of the scene after the crush showed many young people looking dazed, with personal items that had been left behind scattered around them.
“There were piles of injured on the ground, some being resuscitated, others dead and covered with sheets,” said Isabel Schloesser, 18, according to Reuters. “It was way too full in the afternoon. Everyone wanted to get in.”
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"The trade of the petty usurer is hated with most reason: it makes a profit from currency itself, instead of making it from the process which currency was meant to serve. Their common characteristic is obviously their sordid avarice." ~Aristotle
The organiser of the festival said that there would be no more Love Parades.
"The Love Parade has always been a joyful and peaceful party, but in future would always be overshadowed by yesterday's events," , Rainer Schaller said.
"Out of respect for the victims, their families and friends, we are going to discontinue the event in the future, and that means the end of the Love Parade."
Officials have launched an investigation into the disaster. Foreign nationals
Mayor Adolf Sauerland said that until the investigation was complete, any aportioning of guilt would be "out of place, our of order".
"That would not serve the victims, nor would it serve the families," he said.
He said 340 people had been injured.
Sixteen of the dead had been identified, he added, and four of the victims were foreigners: one from the Netherlands, one from Australia, one from Italy and one China. They ranged in age from just over 20 to 40.
British DJ at the festival: ''Organisers told us to carry on playing."
Mr Sauerland said earlier that a security plan for the festival had been worked out beforehand.
Most of the victims were trampled to death at an entrance tunnel connecting an old railway station to the parade ground. Police closed the exit to the tunnel and those trying to get in were told via loudhailer to turn around, but panic broke out.
Eyewitnesses claim they tried to warn police before the stampede occurred that the tunnel was overcrowded, but said the authorities ignored their warnings.
"You cannot jail one million people behind fences, you need to let them walk around free, then such things do not happen," one witness told journalists.
One local resident told APTV: "Three days ago I thought the organiser was stupid because he only made one entrance point to the Love Parade. You can't lock so many people away behind a fence. That doesn't work."
Officials said emergency workers had difficulties reaching the injured because of the massive crowds.
Police said the festival drew about 1.4 million people.
The exact circumstances of the stampede are still not clear.
It appears most of the victims were crushed to death.
A young woman told Die Welt: "Everywhere you looked, there were people with blue faces.
"My boyfriend pulled me out over the bodies, otherwise we would both have died in there. How can I ever forget those faces? The faces of the dead."
"The trade of the petty usurer is hated with most reason: it makes a profit from currency itself, instead of making it from the process which currency was meant to serve. Their common characteristic is obviously their sordid avarice." ~Aristotle
(Reuters) - 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 organizers 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 organizers and collecting evidence in hopes of reconstructing the events, but it will be labor- and time-intensive," police spokesman Christoph Gilles said by telephone on Sunday.
The festival drew about 1.4 million people from all over Europe, most in the 18-26 age bracket.
Police in the Ruhr industrial city said another festival-goer felled in the stampede died overnight, raising the toll to 19, with 342 people injured.
Duisburg police tried to close the tunnel entrance about a half an hour before the chaos broke out in the late afternoon on Saturday, but panic ensued nonetheless.
"Apparently some tried to enter the area by climbing a fence along a ramp and then fell," the head of an emergency task force, Wolfgang Rabe, told ARD television late on Saturday.
"It is still a presumption at the moment, but this could have caused a panic," he added.
The festival was not immediately canceled because authorities feared an abrupt halt could spark a second panic.
Music blared out after the stampede and people danced on, unaware of the unfolding tragedy nearby. Organizers finally called the event off in late evening hours after the deaths.
Rescue work was initially hampered by the huge crowds attending one of Europe's biggest electronic music events in fine weather, officials said.
"The trade of the petty usurer is hated with most reason: it makes a profit from currency itself, instead of making it from the process which currency was meant to serve. Their common characteristic is obviously their sordid avarice." ~Aristotle
Organisers of the disastrous Love parade in Germany say the festival will never be held again after 19 people were killed.
One Australian woman died in the stampede and more than three hundred were injured when crowds panicked in an access tunnel.
Questions are being asked as to why the venue with a single entry point was chosen to host an event that attracted more than a million dance music fans.
Police and organisers have begun to investigate how the event, which is supposed to promote peace, ended so disastrously.
Witnesses said panic spread after police tried to turn back fans against the flow of thousands streaming into the festival area through a disused railway tunnel.
People tried to climb walls out of harms way but many were crushed by surging crowds desperate to get out of the tunnel to safety.
The Mayor of Duisburg has appealed for people to wait for the result of a police inquiry before blaming anyone. The festival organisers have said the annual festival that has been running since 1989 will never be held again.
They said the site was too small and warnings of overcrowding had been ignored.
The organiser of the festival has said there will be no more Love Parades.
German prosecutors have launched a criminal investigation into the disaster. 'Terrible memories'
Speaking in the town of Bayreuth, Mrs Merkel again offered her condolences to the families of those killed and injured, saying the federal administration had offered full support to the North Rhine Westphalia regional government.
She said: "It now needs to be very intensively investigated as to how this happened because the many young people who were delighted to be going to the event have had... terrible memories and we have to do everything to make sure that something like this does not happen again."
Officials said blame should not be apportioned before the investigation had run its course
Mrs Merkel added: "The organisers have said themselves that they will not hold any more Love Parades but such large events need to be made safe and the federal states of course have the required police forces to do this."
Festival organiser Rainer Schaller appeared with officials at a news conference in Duisburg on Sunday.
He said: "The Love Parade has always been a joyful and peaceful party, but in future would always be overshadowed by yesterday's events.
"Out of respect for the victims, their families and friends, we are going to discontinue the event in the future, and that means the end of the Love Parade."
Duisburg Mayor Adolf Sauerland said that although the question of why the disaster had happened was "absolutely justified and must be answered", he insisted that until the investigation was complete, any apportioning of guilt would be "out of order".
"That would not serve the victims, nor would it serve the families," he said, adding that 16 of the dead had been identified.
A police spokesman later said six of the victims were foreigners - an Australian woman, an Italian woman, a Dutch man, a Chinese woman and two people from Spain. They ranged in age from 20 to 40.
Mr Sauerland said a security plan for the festival had been worked out beforehand "which gave no reason to believe that there would be a problem".
A poster among tributes at the Duisburg stampede site asks "Why?"
But BBC Berlin correspondent Tristana Moore says critics argued that the organisers and police were not prepared for such huge numbers of visitors and the site itself - an old railway yard - was too small and completely unsuitable.
German media said the festival had drawn about 1.4 million people.
However, the number has been contested. A local official in charge of the emergency response, Wolfgang Rabe, said the site "can hold 300,000 people and it was at no time full".
The head of a major police union, Rainer Wendt, told the Bild newspaper his organisation had warned a year ago that Duisburg was "too narrow, too small to manage the masses of people".
Police said that no-one had died inside the tunnel.
Deputy police chief Detlef von Schmeling said: "Fourteen people died on the metal steps leading away from the tunnel, two on a wall outside the tunnel."
Police had reportedly closed the exit to the tunnel and were telling those trying to get in to turn around when panic broke out, although the exact circumstances of the stampede are still not clear.
Eyewitnesses claimed they had tried to warn police before the stampede occurred that the tunnel was overcrowded, but said the authorities ignored their warnings.
One Duisburg resident, who lit a candle at a tribute site on Sunday, said: "This is such a shame for the city of Duisburg. Who gave a licence for this sort of planning? Heads should roll."
Leading his Angelus prayer at his summer residence outside Rome, Pope Benedict XVI, who is German, expressed "deep sorrow" over the deaths.
"I remember in my prayers the young people who lost their lives," he said.
"The trade of the petty usurer is hated with most reason: it makes a profit from currency itself, instead of making it from the process which currency was meant to serve. Their common characteristic is obviously their sordid avarice." ~Aristotle
Organisers allowed just one entrance to music festival grounds for expected crowd of 1.4 million, witnesses say
Prosecutors in Germany have launched an investigation after 19 people were crushed to death at a techno music festival in the city of Duisburg amid accusations that organisers had failed to heed repeated warnings by safety experts.
City officials said at a press conference today that 16 of the 19 victims, who were aged between 20 and 40 years old, had been identified. They included a 27-year-old Australian woman from New South Wales, an Italian woman, a 22-year-old Dutchman and a Chinese man. More than 340 people were injured when revellers at the Love Parade, which attracted an estimated 1.4 million people, packed into a tunnel that appears to have been the only entrance into the festival after police closed the grounds due to overcrowding.
The tunnel, 100 metres long and 16 metres wide, had no escape routes. It quickly became hot and airless and scores of people inside collapsed. Others fell an estimated nine metres from a ladder when they tried to find another route out of the grounds. At least 10 people had to be resuscitated. Sixteen died at the festival, grounds, and the other three in or on their way to hospital. Medics on the scene said many died from asphyxiation and crushed spinal cords.
Organisers of the Love Parade, first held in Berlin in 1989, confirmed that investigators today seized documents relating to the organisation of the event as prosecutors launched their inquiry. The Love Parade's head organiser, Rainer Schaller, said he and his team were cooperating fully with the police. He also announced the discontinuation of the event, which had attained a cult status around the world and spawned scores of copy-cat events from Leeds to Rio de Janeiro.
"The Love Parade has always been a peaceful party, but it will forever be overshadowed by the accident, so out of respect for the victims the Love Parade will never take place again," he said.
Among the documents seized by police is the report by a fire service investigator who warned of the danger if crowds were encouraged to move through the tunnel, and suggested it should be sealed.
Other safety experts had warned that the 230,000 square metres of party grounds — on the site of a disused railway depot on the outskirts of Rhur Valley city — were large enough to hold only up to half a million ravers, and not the 1.4 million who did turn up for the event.
A spokesman for the police trade union, Wolfgang Orscheschek, representing the 1,400 police officers who were on duty at the Love Parade, said the victims had been "sacrificed for material interests", insisting that Duisburg's leaders had come under immense pressure from the event's organisers.
"They had no choice but to say 'yes' to the event, despite urgent warnings from security experts that it should not have gone ahead," he said.
Last year the nearby city of Bochum pulled out of the event because of similar safety concerns. Despite misgivings and a campaign by local residents to ban the event, Duisburg's mayor Adolf Sauerland said the "security concept" had been "sound". He said he was unable to comment due to the police investigation, other than to express his sympathy with the victims and their families.
Chancellor Angela Merkel and Pope Benedict XVI also sent messages of condolence.
itnnews | July 25, 2010
This year's organiser of the Love Parade has said that the event, which has been held for twenty years, will never be held again. . Follow us on twitter at http://twitter.com/itn_news .
"The trade of the petty usurer is hated with most reason: it makes a profit from currency itself, instead of making it from the process which currency was meant to serve. Their common characteristic is obviously their sordid avarice." ~Aristotle
BERLIN — A criminal investigation began on Sunday after 19 people were crushed to death at the Love Parade, one of Europe's biggest music festivals.
The event has been permanently cancelled after the accident in the entrance tunnel during the weekend.
Sixteen people were killed at the scene, three more died in hospital and almost 350 people suffered fractures and other injuries at the festival held in the western German city of Duisburg on Saturday.
Among the dead were Bosnian, Dutch, Australian, Chinese, Spanish and Italian nationals, police said. Sixteen out of the 19 victims, who were aged between 20 and 40 years, have been identified.
As Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, paid her respects to the dead and injured, an exhaustive investigation into the accident began amid accusations that organizers ignored safety warnings.
Police initially said that overcrowding at the only entrance tunnel resulted in a stampede and then a crush. Disaster struck at 5.30pm on Saturday at the exit to the underpass as police were trying to prevent people from entering the site.
"The police announced by loudspeaker that participants should return in the direction of the train station," said one eyewitness.
However, authorities later said that the festival grounds were not yet filled at the time of the accident.
But while estimates of the size of the crowd have varied - organizers say there were up to 1.4 million - it is clear that as too many people tried to pass through the 450ft tunnel, panic broke out.
Festival-goers described the mass of people "pushing with unstoppable force", and hundreds were trapped inside the hot, airless tunnel, which had no escape routes.
"At some point the column (of people) got stuck, probably because everything was closed up front, and we saw that the first people were already lying on the ground," said Udo Sandhoefer, a partygoer.
Emergency services said many died from asphyxiation or crushed spinal cords.
City officials chose not to evacuate the festival, fearing it might cause more panic, and many people continued partying, unaware of the deaths. Rescue workers carried away the injured as techno music thundered in the background.
As prosecutors seized documents relating to the event, its organiser, Rainer Schaller, said that he was discontinuing the festival.
"The Love Parade was always a peaceful and joyous party that will now forever be overshadowed by yesterday's tragic events," he said.
"Out of respect for the victims, families and friends, we will discontinue the event."
The mayor of a German city where 19 people were killed by a stampede at a music festival has been chased away from the scene by angry mourners.
Haunting outlines mark the spot where victims of the stampede lay
Adolf Sauerland faced a furious reaction when he arrived at a vigil being held by the people of Duisburg, as an investigation began into the deadly crush at Saturday's Love Parade in which 342 people were injured.
Sky's Tom Parmenter, who was at the scene, said Mr Sauerland was met with a volley of abuse.
"Men began to run at the mayor. Arms were waved and fingers pointed. The language was furious," he said.
Mourners leave tributes near the scene of the stampede
"Many people in Duisburg hold him in some way responsible.
"He'd earlier faced the cameras and failed to answer some key questions, saying it was too early to apportion blame."
Prosecutors say they are investigating "negligent homicide aimed at persons unknown".
Six foreigners, from Spain, Bosnia, the Netherlands, Australia, Italy and China, were among those who died when hordes of young people pushed their way through a tunnel into the festival grounds in a disused railway freight yard.
Nineteen people were killed and more than 340 injured
Most of the victims, all aged between 20 and 40, were found dead on a ramp near the tunnel, authorities said.
Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is due to visit the scene, said: "There must be a very intense examination of how this happened. We must do everything to prevent this from happening again."
"The trade of the petty usurer is hated with most reason: it makes a profit from currency itself, instead of making it from the process which currency was meant to serve. Their common characteristic is obviously their sordid avarice." ~Aristotle
Duisburg residents react to the stampede at the Love Parade that killed 19 people in their city on Saturday. . . Follow us on twitter at http://twitter.com/itn_news .
RussiaToday | July 26, 2010
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has demanded an investigation into the deadly stampede at the 'Love Parade' music festival in Germany. 19 were killed and 342 injured as vast numbers of party-goers packed into a tunnel which was the only way in or out of the event. The organisers of the Parade have already announced it will never be held again.
nocommenttv | July 26, 2010
Flowers and candles are placed at the site where at least 19 people were killed and hundreds injured after a stampede at the "Love Parade" music festival in Germany.... No Comment | euronews: watch the international news without commentary | http://www.euronews.net/nocomment/
"The trade of the petty usurer is hated with most reason: it makes a profit from currency itself, instead of making it from the process which currency was meant to serve. Their common characteristic is obviously their sordid avarice." ~Aristotle
The latest victim, a 21-year-old German woman, died as a result of her injuries in hospital late Monday (July 26). Authorities confirmed that the number of people injured at the free dance music festival, which was held in the Northern German city of Duisburg July 24, has also risen to over 500. It is understood that none of the injuries is life-threatening.
BERLIN — German prosecutors say the death toll from a crush at last weekend's Love Parade techno festival has risen to 21 after a young woman died from her injuries.
Duisburg prosecutors' spokesman Rolf Haferkamp said on Wednesday that the 25-year-old German woman died overnight in a hospital.
"The trade of the petty usurer is hated with most reason: it makes a profit from currency itself, instead of making it from the process which currency was meant to serve. Their common characteristic is obviously their sordid avarice." ~Aristotle
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Christian Wulff attend an ecumenical memorial ceremony at a church in Duisburg on Saturday for the victims of the Duisburg Love Parade stampede.... No Comment | euronews: watch the international news without commentary | http://www.euronews.net/nocomment/
RussiaToday | July 31, 2010
A memorial service has been held in Germany, to remember those who died in a stampede at the Love Parade techno music festival, a week ago. Chancellor Angela Merkel broke off from her summer holiday to attend the service, in the western city of Duisburg. Twenty-one people died and 500 were injured during the mass panic and crush at the event. Seven foreigners were among the dead.
"The trade of the petty usurer is hated with most reason: it makes a profit from currency itself, instead of making it from the process which currency was meant to serve. Their common characteristic is obviously their sordid avarice." ~Aristotle
