A Guatemalan music festival ended in a stampede that resulted to nine deaths, including two children, and over 20 injured as the country celebrated its independence.
A stampede in a music festival in the western Guatemalan city of Quetzaltenango resulted in at least nine deaths and over 20 people injured as the country celebrated its independence on Thursday, September 15.
Out of the nine, two were aged 12, according to Maria del Carmen Sajquim, spokesperson for Guatemala’s Western Regional Hospital.
The injured people were transferred to the hospital and were believed to have suffered fractures, local firefighters said earlier on Twitter.
Nancy Quemé who was present at the concert said that there had been thousands of people in the event and that it rained on the day resulting in a lot of mud.
“I think because of this the people couldn’t move and they fell,”
Witnesses also claim that the venue only had two exits and that it caused people to rush to the exits that eventually led to the stampede.
“They closed off the whole area and only left two access (points),” Quemé added. “The entrances seemed really small to me. I stayed pretty far back and decided to leave minutes before the end of the concert.”
Videos are now circulating on social media showing dozens of concertgoers running into each other with the people shouting, calling for other people to stop pushing and asking others to move to one side so those who fell could be rescued.
According to Amilcar Rivas, Quetzaltenango city manager, the event organizers did not have full control of the crowd as the security deployed failed.
He added that the event, which celebrates the 201st year of the country’s independence from Spain, did not secure a permit.
The concert was sponsored by a beer maker and held on a field often used for such events.
Tags: #musicfestival, #death, #stampede