Love Parade stampede

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

Love Parade stampede

Map of the Love Parade in Duisburg
Date	24 July 2010 (2010-07-24)
Location	Duisburg, Germany
Reported injuries	510
Reported death(s)	21

On 24 July 2010, a stampede at the 2010 Love Parade electronic dance music festival in Duisburg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, caused the death of 21 people. At least 510 more were injured.^[1]

The Love Parade was a popular and free access festival and parade that originated in 1989 in Berlin. The parade features stages, but has floats with music, DJs and dancers moving through the audience. But this in Duisburg was the first edition of the festival that was organised in a closed-off area.^[2] Between 200,000 and 1.4 million people were reported to be attending the event and 3,200 police were on hand.^[3]

The event with the slogan "The Art of Love" was one of the program elements of RUHR.2010, an effort to highlight cultural events in the Ruhr area, one of 2010's European Capital of Culture.^[4]

On 20 August, Wikileaks released 43 documents from the Duisburg police, contractors at the parade and other parties involved from 2007-2010.^[5]

1 Incident
2 Fatalities
3 Eyewitness accounts
4 Aftermath
5 Reactions
6 Assigning the blame
7 See also
8 References
9 External links

Incident

A 2008 photograph of the tunnel that leads to the place where the deaths occurred

The festival was staged on the area of a former freight station. The capacity of the enclosed location was limited to 250,000 people,^[6] but more than one million visitors were expected, based on the experience of previous years.

Entrance was granted at 12:00 CEST (10:00 UTC). A 240-metre tunnel from the east and a series of underpasses from the west met at a ramp that was supposed to be the only entrance and exit point of the festival area.^[7] A smaller ramp existed between the underpasses from the west. Because of overcrowding, police at the entrance began announcing over loudspeakers that new arrivals should turn around and head back.^[8]^[9] The side of the tunnel that was the entry of the parade area was closed, but people continued to enter the tunnel from the rear, despite being told it was closed. A stampede occurred as the ramp between tunne/underpasses and festival area became overcrowded.^[10]^[11]

There was some debate as to how the deaths occurred. Some reports suggested they were caused by people falling off a staircase as they tried to escape the tunnel.^[12] However, autopsies showed that all of the fatalities were due to crushed rib cages.^[12]^[13]

Fatalities

A total of 21 people died, 13 women and eight men, aged between 18 and 38 years. 14 were reported to be Germans. Among the seven casualties of other nationalities were two Spanish women aged 21 and 22 years, a 38-year-old Chinese woman living in Germany,^[14] a 22-year-old man from the Netherlands,^[15] a 21-year-old woman from Italy,^[16] one person from Bosnia-Herzegovina, and a 27-year-old woman from Australia.^[17] 15 died at the site, six died in hospital.

Eyewitness accounts

"The atmosphere was explosive. Many in the crowd seemed to be intoxicated. When people started falling off the stairs and pulling others with them, it became just chaotic. They just couldn't be stopped. It was a living hell."

—Eyewitness police officer^[18]

"I will never forget the sight. There were all these twisted-up bodies of those who had been crushed. They were lying at the tunnel exit. Their faces had all turned blue."

—Eyewitness woman trapped in tunnel^[18]

Aftermath

Candles near where the disaster took place

Police chose not to close down the event, fearing that doing so could spark another panic.^[8] Nearby motorway A59, which was closed during the whole Love Parade, functioned as an access route for emergency services.^[19]

During a press conference on 25 July, organiser Rainer Schaller stated that there would never again be another Love Parade, out of respect for those who lost their lives. "The Love Parade has always been a joyful and peaceful party, but in future would always be overshadowed by yesterday's events" he stated.^[20]^[21]

The German police and State's Attorney (Staatsanwaltschaft) have opened an official criminal investigation.^[21] The Duisburg prosecutors office is investigating negligent homicide, but they have not named who their investigation targets are.^[22]

Reactions

German Chancellor Angela Merkel quickly issued a statement that she was "aghast and saddened by the sorrow and the pain".^[3] German President Christian Wulff also expressed his condolences for the victims of the tragedy that had "caused death, sorrow and pain amidst a peaceful festival of cheerful young people from many countries. ... My thoughts are with the victims of the tragedy and with all their family and friends".^[23]

Assigning the blame

None of the involved organizations or officials took the blame for the disaster by 29 July, instead the involved parties issued several statements accusing each other in a circular manner:

On 26 July, Rainer Schaller, organiser of the festival, accused the police of mistakes in crowd control, which he claims led to the disaster.^[24]

On 28 July, the interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia rejected this and assigned all the blame to Schaller, his company Lopavent, their security concept and the festival personnel.^[25]

On 29 July, several hundred people rallied at Duisburg's city hall, demanding the resignation of the mayor, Adolf Sauerland, depicting him at the gallows. The protesters claimed that Sauerland had been aware of sub-standard security provisions for the festival, but pushed his administration to approve the plans nonetheless. Sauerland however rejected the claims and repeatedly expressed that he would not resign.^[26] According to local trade union ver.di, members of all parts of the urban administration of Duisburg have been threatened (sanitation workers, call center agents). Traffic warden were not sent out at all for security reasons.^[27]

On 14 August it became known that Sauerland admitted to deceiving the public about the expected number of visitors at the event. The "several million people" he had been referring to prior to the parade were only "pushed numbers" for media attention in accordance with the organiser of the event. The organiser and the administration had also claimed 1.4 million visitors on the day the stampede occurred but it turned out that the area, which had been approved for 250,000, was apparently not even filled at the time. Due to threats on his life, Sauerland is currently protected by police.^[28]