Germany's Love Parade: 15 DEAD !

[Nictoshek]

People try to leave the area after a panic on this year's techno-music festival 'Loveparade 2010' in Duisburg, Germany, on Saturday, July 24, 2010.

15 killed in mass panic at Germany's Love Parade

By MICHAEL SOHN and VANESSA GERA, Associated Press Writers Michael Sohn And Vanessa Gera, Associated Press Writers 1 hr 3 mins ago

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.

Emergency workers had trouble getting to the victims in the large tunnel that leads to the grounds.

A young man told WDR television that he was among those caught up in the crush.

"Both my legs were trapped — then, thank God, somebody helped me up, then I helped another up ... and then, kind of by luck, we were pushed back out of the crowd," he said. The station did not identify him.

Another young man who wasn't named told n-tv television the tunnel became so crowded that people fell over.

"It got tighter and tighter from minute to minute and at some point everyone just wanted out, and they only saw the two exits to the right and left," he said. "The pressure from behind become so high that ... we couldn't do anything any more. People were just pushed together until they fell over."

Duisburg city officials decided at a crisis meeting to let the parade go on to prevent more panic and another stampede, said city spokesman Frank Kopatschek.

"The crisis meeting determined not to stop the event because at the moment there are too many people on the grounds," he said.

It is 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 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.

[pieter]

At least 10 dead in stampede at Germany music festival



Police say crowds of people were crushed in a tunnel leading to the event grounds at the techno-music Love Parade festival in Duisburg.
By DPA and Reuters Tags: Israel news Germany

At least 10 people died Saturday at a techno-music festival in the German city of Duisburg when crowds of people were crushed in a tunnel leading to the event grounds, police said.


Rescue workers treating participants of the techno-music festival Love Parade 2010 in Duisburg, Germany, July 24, 2010.

A statement released by Duisburg police said that 10 people had been resuscitated and at least another 15 had been injured, when panic broke out as crowds pushed into the confined space.

A reporter for the German television network ZDF claimed 15 people had been killed.

The Love Parade, one of Europe's largest electronic music events, originated in Berlin and has now been spun off in other cities worldwide.

WDR television said that 1.4 million people were attending the event in Duisburg. Rescue helicopters had landed on an adjacent motorway, and emergency workers were experiencing difficulty getting to the accident site, the station reported.

Partygoers continued the festivities, unaware of what had happened. Police were attempting to slowly move people away from the site without causing further panic, WDR reported.

The first Love Parade was held in 1989 as the Berlin Wall came down, and ran intermittently in the capital until 2006. Problems accommodating the huge number of ravers wanting to attend the event led to city authorities being no longer willing to host the party.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3Mr1QECd8A&feature=player_embedded#!
[/youtube]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-10751899

[Nictoshek]

Its up to 18 already:

news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100724/ap_on_re_eu/eu_germany_love_parade_deaths

[pieter]

Masses are always dangerous, because they are not controlable in extreme circumstances
like panic, hysteria, fire, attacks from the outside, rioting, heat or thunder and lightning.

[seal]

My symphathy to all those families and friends who lost their dear ones.

[karl]

The information as of present, is 19 dead. Not only is this deplorable, but a very high liability against the insurance as required for obtaining of event permit.

Commensurately with expected numbers of people in attendance, is requirement for such requirements as toilet facilities/emergency access in such cases as medical. Availability of potable water {drinking water} and separate access and exit.

The only access/exit was a underroadway tunnel. The entire area for purpose of control, was fenced in.

It now will be up to the courts and insurance liability. At present, the storm clouds are gathering for the soon to be filed, a multitude of claims for damages/wrongful death suites, and liability against the operators and owners as listed upon the applicantion for the event permit.

Karl

[gideon]

Very sad and unfortunate. My condolences to all.

[pieter]

Yes, a tragic day for people who were trapped, crushed, trampled upon and died or became wounded due to the pressure of human masses, panic and lack of escape roots.

It was irresponsable to have 1,4 million people in an area with such a limited entrance. Due to the fact that a large group wanted to go in and on the other side another large group wanted to go out of the festival space, the people in the middle got cought, and werent able to go up, or somewhere down, because there was no space or escape route underground. This was a terrible situation what remind me of other tragedies.







I am not a Michael Savage fan or anti-Obama, but I find it interesting what Savage says about masses and crowds. The uncontrolable aspect of it.

[Nictoshek]

Questions Follow German Stampede

By JUDY DEMPSEY
July 25, 2010

BERLIN — A deadly stampede at a German music festival over the weekend has raised accusations of negligence aimed at event organizers, politicians and the police, who on Sunday defended their actions in one of the deadliest public events in recent years.

The stampede, at the Love Parade festival in the western city of Duisburg, left 19 dead and 340 injured on Saturday as participants crowded into an underpass that was on the way to the entrance. Victims were crushed against the walls of the tunnel and trampled underfoot, investigators said, and many of those who died were suffocated.

On Sunday morning, the tunnel was closed to the public, but dozens of people had gathered outside it, most of them silent, whispering or sobbing. Some had laid flowers, other had lit candles. There was a white T-shirt propped up by a stick. It read: “19 dead, 360 injured.”

The prosecutor of Duisburg has called for an official investigation to determine why so many people had become trapped inside a 200-meter long tunnel. There were 5,000 police officers to handle security at the event, which was held at a former freight railroad yard.

At an angry and other emotional news conference on Sunday, Wolfgang Rabe, head of an emergency task force, said the police had first tried to close the tunnel a half an hour before the chaos broke out on Saturday.

“Apparently some tried to enter the area by climbing a fence along a ramp and then fell,” Mr. Rabe said at the news conference, which also included Detlef von Schmeling, Duisburg’s deputy police chief.

Mr. von Schmeling said several people had fallen from the ramp. But, he added, “I can’t confirm that there was such pressure that such an accident was inevitable.”

Christoph Gilles, a police spokesman, said: “We are working with the organizers and collecting evidence in hopes of reconstructing the events. But it will be labor and time intensive.”

The chaos began in the late afternoon as the exit from the tunnel was closed by the police, who cited safety reasons; there were already 1.4 million people on the site.

The entrance to the Love Parade itself, apparently the only such entrance, had been sealed beyond the tunnel exit to prevent further congestion on the festival grounds.

After the tunnel exit was closed, the crowds inside panicked. They could not turn back because the tunnel behind them was still packed thick with people trying to get in.

To compound the problem, revelers inside the festival, told by loudspeakers to exit, piled into the tunnel, causing even more congestion and panic.

Video footage shot from attendees showed shocking scenes of panic, with people scrambling to climb ladders, or being pulled up to nearby ramps. In the scramble, people were crushed, leaving behind dead bodies and personal possessions: broken spectacles, shoes, bags.

“There were piles of injured on the ground, some being resuscitated, others dead and covered with sheets,” said Isabel Schlösser, 18, who attended the event, according to Reuters. “It was way too full in the afternoon. Everyone wanted to get in.”

Udo Sandhöfer told the N-TV commercial television channel: “At some point the column of people got stuck, probably because it was closed up front and we saw that the first people were already lying on the ground.”

Many faulted Duisburg’s mayor, Adolf Sauerland, who had invited the festival to help the local economy. Senior police officials said he had not made adequate preparations.

Mr. Sauerland had worked hard to bring the Love Parade to a city that is set deep in the Ruhr Valley and that was once synonymous with German coal mining and industry. But with the decline of the Ruhr Valley’s industries, regional politicians have pushed to remake the area, opting for international festivals and transforming former factories into cultural centers.

“The mayor was determined to have the Love Parade here in Duisburg,” said Götz Middeldorf, Duisburg editor of the Neue Ruhr Zeitung. “We were the only newspaper that said: ‘No. Stop it. The city is not prepared. We will not be able to cope with all these people,”’ he said in an interview on Sunday.

Mr. Sauerland said Sunday that it was not the time to lay blame. Instead, it is necessary to give the investigators time and support to find out the reasons for the catastrophe, he said at a new conference.

“My thoughts are with the victims,” Mr. Sauerland said. “I am profoundly shocked. In the run-up to the event, we had elaborated a security concept together with the organizers and partners of the event.”

But Rainer Wendt, leader of the German police union, said that it warned a year ago that Duisburg was not a suitable location.

“The city is too narrow, too small to mange the masses of people,” he said. He laid the blame on the mayor and the Love Parade organizers.

Matthias Röingh, known by his stage name, Dr. Motte, who founded of the Love Parade, blamed the organizers. “One single entrance through a tunnel lends itself to disaster,” he said at a news conference. “I am very sad.”

Rainer Schaller, organizer of the Duisburg event, said the Love Parade, which features the world’s top D.J.’s, would never be held again.

“The Love Parade was always a peaceful event and a happy party” but would now be overshadowed by what happened on Saturday, he said a news conference. “It’s all over for the Love Parade.”

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.

The Love Parade has been held in the Ruhr region since 2007.

It was held in Essen in 2007 and Dortmund in 2008. It was scheduled to be held in the city of Bochum in 2009. But the event was canceled because a suitable site could not be found. The city authorities said at the time that they could not cope with the number of people.

[Nictoshek]

'Complot: Duitse politie heeft alle gegevens ramp gewist'

UPDATE DUISBURG - De Duitse politie heeft alle bewijsstukken over de Love parade-tragedie van zaterdag in Duisburg uit haar computers gewist. Dat meldt het Duitse nieuwsweekblad Der Spiegel op zijn website.

Het betreft onder andere bevelen over het uitrukken van de ordetroepen, berichten over de toestand ter plaatse en kaarten.

De gegevens werden niet alleen uit de computers van de functionarissen verwijderd, maar ook uit hun e-mailaccounts.

Een van die functionarissen vertrouwde der Spiegel toe, te vermoeden dat een "grote doofpotoperatie" is uitgevoerd. (CBR)

25/07/10 22u17