GERMAN FESTIVAL CANCELED AFTER DEATH STAMPEDE
Baku, July 26 (AZERTAC). The organizer of a German music festival announced Sunday that the Love Parade has been disbanded after more than 19 people were killed in a stampede, according to CNN.
Rainer Schaller said the festival, which began in 1989, has been canceled "out of respect for the victims, their families and friends ... The Love Parade has always been a peaceful event and a joyous celebration, which will now forever be overshadowed by the tragic deaths yesterday."
The death toll from the stampede at the festival is at 19, police in Duisburg, Germany, said Sunday. Duisburg`s Senior Mayor Adolf Sauerland said 340 festival goers were injured Saturday when chaos broke out at the "Love Parade 2010." Police have said as many as 400 were injured.
The deadly crush happened in an underpass between the main event site and the expansion area. Witnesses told CNN affiliate NTV that people pushed into the tunnel from both sides until it was dangerously overcrowded. The panic began as festival-goers began to lose consciousness as they were crushed against the walls and each other.
Detlef von Schmeling, police president of Duisburg, said 16 of the dead did not die in the tunnel, but at the entrance ramp.
Authorities have identified the victims as 11 women and eight men. Eleven of the victims are from Germany and the remaining eight hail from Australia, the Netherlands, China, Italy, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Spain.
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