19 killed in German ‘love’ stampede

Duisburg (Germany), Sunday

Some were trampled to death, some crushed against the walls of a tunnel, Germany today mourned 19 people killed in a sudden stampede by thousands trying to get to a huge open air music festival.

Another 340 people were injured in the mass panic to get to the Love Parade dance party in the western city of Duisburg that drew about 1.4 million partygoers from across the world, according to a new mounting toll given by police.

Authorities have not yet given any indication as to what set off the sudden fright. But questions were immediately raised about the safety of the 200 metre long and 30 metre wide tunnel that was the main access to the giant rave being held in a former railway freight yard.

Police said the main crush was inside the tunnel, but a Duisburg city official said some people also died on the steps leading up to the tunnel.

Most revellers remained unaware of the incident and kept on dancing into the night as authorities kept a lid on the news to avoid another panic.

Eyewitnesses described horrific scenes however.

“Everywhere you looked there were blue faces,” one young female partygoer told the Die Welt daily.

“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.”

Several people fell to the ground and were trampled underfoot, another witness told the NTV news channel.

“Some people were on the ground while others were climbing up the walls,” said the witness, Udo Sandhoefer. Police and security officials tried to get into the tunnel “but it was already too full,” he added.

“People kept trying to get into the tunnel for about 10 minutes, then realised what had happened and turned around,” he said.
Late today police said, four foreigners are among the 19 victims of the stampede.

The dead included an Australian woman, an Italian woman, a Dutch man and a Chinese man, local police chief Detlef von Schmeling told a news conference.

Only 16 of the 19 people crushed to death in the stampede have been identified by early Sunday, Von Schmeling said. (AFP)
Those identified were aged between 20 and 40, he said.

The Love Parade filled an important gap for Berlin’s struggling tourism sector after the Berlin Wall was quickly torn down in late 1989 and 1990. It helped establish Berlin’s image as one of the world’s most exciting cities for young people.

More than one million music lovers from around the world regularly crowded into Berlin for a six-km-long gyrating party of dancing, drinking and outlawed substances. (AFP)