At Least 15 Dead after Panic Breaks Out at Love Parade

[Farin]

The 2010 Love Parade in the German city of Duisburg has ended in tragedy after 15 people died in a stampede. Panic broke out in a tunnel after the festival site was closed due to overcrowding.

read the whole article at Spiegel Online

[chutzpah]

What would anyone expect with a million people? And add some beer and stuff That's just sad news

[Lea]

You weren't there were you Farin? I saw it on the news it looked awful

[Farin]

no, techno isn't really my music... still bad when we heard it in the news yesterday evening

btw, in the meantime the title is wrong, it's now 19 dead, more than 300 injured

[TheLizard]

And add some beer and stuff

It's a techno festival, so there was probably some significantly heavier stuff than alcohol being passed around. Certainly would have added to the panic.

[edna]

I guess just a crowd of people, no matter if they took stuff or not, is all you need to make an avalanche...

[Steel2Velvet]

What a tragic story! And such a horrific experience for those who participated; life-altering, really. An example of why I say that:

I was in a Christmas concert street fair in Curitiba (a city of 3 million) 4 years ago. There were about 100,000 people jammed into a two block section of building-to-building-lined street. My wife and I somehow made our way into the heart of that compacted mass, continuously putting us in direct tactile contact with all those around. A couple minutes into the experience, a stifling feeling came over us (not unlike the onset of claustrophobic-induced nausea) when we both realized we were not in control of where we were going. This was a docile crowd not suddenly moving chaotically in any particular direction, but it was a taste of the terror that must exist within a mob if its inhabitants should stampede because of a fire or trying to get quickly somewhere else for some urgent reason. I fully understood, at that time, how people could be easily crushed or trampled. I will never voluntarily put myself in a situation like that again.

[Farin]

(today the 20th victim died of her injuries, newest number was now 500+ injured)

It's a techno festival, so there was probably some significantly heavier stuff than alcohol being passed around. Certainly would have added to the panic.

I doubt this had much impact on the situation (definitely not more than other festivals or concerts). First this happened in the early evening when most people wanted to get INTO the area, and secondly there have been more informations in the last few days... eg the whole complex seemed to be laid out for only 250.000 people (not the 1 million+ that they expected beforehand or the 1.4 million that probably were there), then there are rumours that certain safety regulations weren't followed... didn't have to be followed, 'cause they were granted exemptions by city officials

[JumboXL]

It confirms me in my decision not to visit concerts with large crowds anymore.

I don´t like (large parts of) the audience that are attracted by shows that big (also a full stadium, prepared for large crowds, scares me), and I do not trust the organizers (anymore) to take good care of my or anybody´s well-being.