Stampede at German Music Festival Kills 18

A stampede at a music festival in western Germany has left at least 18 people dead and several dozen more injured, some of them seriously.

The incident occurred in the city of Duisburg, located not far from Duesseldorf, when crowds massed near a tunnel leading to the Love Parade festival. The overcrowding triggered panic that led to the stampede. Most of the victims were crushed to death.

German police are still trying to determine exactly what happened.

Festival organizers decided to allow the event to go on out of concern of causing further chaos among the hundreds of thousands in attendance. Most revelers continued to party, unaware of the deadly stampede.

German leaders expressed dismay over the tragedy. President Christian Wulff called the deaths dreadful, pointing out that they occurred at a peaceful festival of young people from many countries.

The Love Parade is an annual electronic music festival that was first held in Berlin in 1989 and has since become one of the biggest events of its kind in Europe, attracting more than one million people each year.

Earlier story:

talkin bout love

did that really need to be 51 seconds?

Death toll from German music festival rises to 19


By VANESSA GERA and FRANK AUGSTEIN, Associated Press Writers – Sun Jul 25, 8:27 am ET

DUISBURG, Germany – The death toll rose to 19 on Sunday and police said that 342 had been injured in a panicked crush of partygoers in an overcrowded tunnel that served as the sole entrance to a German festival billed as the world's largest techno music party.

The tragedy shocked the nation and dominated news coverage on Sunday. Many were wondering how such a tragedy could occur in a country that in recent years has organized much bigger events, such as the World Cup four years ago, that went off smoothly.

This year's organizer of the Love Parade said the event — which was held this year for two decades now — would never be held again.

"The Love Parade was always a peaceful event and a happy party" but would forever be overshadowed by the tragedy, Rainer Schaller said.

"It's over for the Love Parade," he said.

He spoke at a press conference where authorities faced tough questions but provided few details about why up to hundreds of thousands of people were funneled through one highway underpass onto the grounds of a former freight railway station hosting the party.

Rainer Wendt, leader of a major German police union, told the Bild daily that his group warned a year ago in vain that Duisburg was an unacceptable location for the Love Parade.

"The city is too narrow, too small to manage the masses of people," Wendt was quoted as saying by Bild's website. He said the blame rests with the city mayor and the Love Parade organizers.

The founder of the Love Parade, Matthias Roeingh — generally known by his artist's name, Dr. Motte — blamed this year's organizers, saying "one single entrance through a tunnel lends itself to disaster. I am very sad."

German media reported that there were at least 1.4 million people but police did not confirm that estimate. They said they have no exact figure but suggested that it was much lower based on the fact that the railway service registered 105,000 as arriving in the city by train in the preceding hours.

Detlef von Schmeling, the police chief in Duisburg, said that 16 of the 19 people killed have been identified so far. He said they include four foreigners — an Australian, an Italian, a Chinese citizen and a person from Holland.

Von Schmeling said their ages ranged from just over 20 to 40.

Witnesses said officers in Duisburg, a city near Duesseldorf in western Germany, closed the end of the tunnel emptying onto the festival grounds after they become overcrowded around 5 p.m. They told revelers over loudspeakers to turn around and walk back in the other direction. But the entrance to the tunnel did not appear to have been closed and people continued piling in, sparking a panic and then a deadly crush.

Witnesses described a desperate scene, as people piled up on each other or scrambled over others who had fallen. TV images showed huge masses of people packed inside the wide tunnel and people struggling to escape up an embankment when the chaos broke out.

Partygoer Udo Sandhoefer told n-tv television that even though no one else was being let in, people still streamed into the tunnel, causing "a real mass panic."

"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," he said.

City officials chose not to evacuate the site, fearing it might spark more panic, and many people continued partying, unaware of the deaths.Rescue workers carried away the injured as techno music thundered in the background.

Other workers had trouble getting to the victims, hampered by the huge crowds. Local media reported that the cell phone system in Duisburg broke down temporarily and frantic parents trying to reach their children instead drove to the scene to look for them.

However, most streets downtown were blocked by police and the highways leading to the city were jammed. Several media outlets also reported that rescue helicopters had problems taking away the heavily injured because there was not enough space for them to land.

German leaders, including Chancellor Angela Merkel, voiced shock that an event meant to celebrate youth, peace and love could turn so deadly.

"The young people came to celebrate and instead there are dead and injured," Merkel said Saturday. "I am horrified by the suffering and the pain."

It was the worst accident of its kind since nine people were crushed to death and 43 more were injured at a rock festival in Roskilde, Denmark, in 2000. That fatal accident occurred when a huge crowd pushed forward during a Pearl Jam gig.

The Love Parade, where people from across Europe gather to dance, watch floats and listen to DJs spin, was once an institution in Berlin, but has been held in the industrial Ruhr region of western Germany since 2007.

The original Berlin Love Parade grew from a 1989 peace demonstration into a huge outdoor celebration of club culture that drew about 1.5 million people at its peak in 1999. But it suffered from financial problems and tensions with city officials in later years, and eventually moved.

Click image to see more photos of Germany's Love Parade

Id like to be the last death reported, cause the first 18 all had to share a story.. but the follow up is all mine.

It's beyond ridiculous now, you've changed every other aspect of your constitution, why is the music festival still a reality in European life? it's disgusting, unnecessary and tragic on every level.

yeah, this sucks.

Because it'd be impossible to get rid of them all? And because if someone wants to stampede someone, they can easily find another way?

festivals don't crush people, people crush people

skitch, superb posting

electronic music

i didnt like this story when i herd about it

Classy thread

feel free to stop anytime with these.

Merkel vows 'intensive' probe of Love Parade deaths

Eyewitness Salil Bhate: "People had trample marks on their face"

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has demanded an "intensive" investigation into the deadly stampede at the Love Parade music festival in Duisburg.

Mrs Merkel said she had been "appalled" by the tragedy, adding that everything must be done to ensure such deaths did not happen again.

The crush outside a tunnel at the entrance of the festival killed 19 people and injured 340 on Saturday.

Survivors have blamed organisers for the deaths.

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."


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 at least six of the victims were foreigners - from Australia, Italy, the Netherlands, China, Bosnia and 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".

Spiegel magazine reported on Sunday that the festival only had authorisation for 250,000 revellers.

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.

:insert nazi joke here:

i heard they saw a japanese guy with a blonde wig and went nutso

The nazis were much better at organizing big events, and with better music.