Over 22,000 evacuated as fire HITS SPAIN MUSIC FESTIVAL
MADRID: Tomorrowland Unite Spain festival has dramatically been evacuated on Saturday night after a huge fire broke out engulfing its stage in Barcelona hours before Steve Aoki was due to perform. A huge crowd of 22,000 people was evacuated from the site, Parc de Can Zam, after a blaze broke out near banks of speakers on the main stage.
Videos which have surfaced on social media show how the speaker system to the left of the main stage was engulfed in fire in a matter of seconds. Music fans could be seen dashing to safety from the front of the main stage as they panicked and realised what was happening.
Others appeared oblivious to what was happening as they danced with the stage erupting in flames behind them. One eyewitness reported on social media that the stage simply “just exploded”.
Another witness claimed that the fire “apparently started during a fireworks display” - though this was yet to be officially confirmed. Pyrotechnics on the stage have been blamed for starting the blaze, according to local media, although that is yet to be confirmed. Organisers have pointed the finger at a “technical malfunction”.
Worried relatives have been taking to social media trying to ensure their loved ones are safe.
The main event is understood to being broadcast in Belgium with it being livestreamed to the giant screens in Barcelona. But performers in Belgium did not appear to have been told what is happening and continued with their performance as the stage in Barcelona burnt down. Local media have estimated 25 per cent of the stage was destroyed by the blaze - although images that have surfaced appear to show that it’s more substantially damaged.
The emergency evacuation procedure flashed on the stage screen as the flames erupted. But fans have been taking to social media to criticise security, question where fire crews were and demand refunds.
Other headliners included Afrojack, Steve Aoki in Spain and Armin Van Burren and Dimitri Vegas. LONDON: Over 150 Islamist extremists have been stripped of their UK passports over fears that they would return from the Islamic State controlled territory in the Middle East to launch attacks in Britain.
According to ‘The Sunday Times’, more than 40 suspects have had their right to a British passport revoked this year alone, with around 30 targeted since March in the wake of the recent terrorist attacks in London and Manchester.
The newspaper claims the UK government has used socalled “deprivation orders” against 35 people to remove their citizenship rights in 2016 and another 15 in the first three months of 2017. It quotes security sources as saying that another 30 have been stripped of passports since March.
Those who have had their citizenship removed include so- called “jihadi brides” who travelled to Syria to marry terrorists and live under the “caliphate” as well as gunmen.
They are all dual nationals, including people born in Britain to parents of other nationalities. Under UK law, the government cannot take away the citizenship of individuals if it would leave them stateless.
According to official figures from last year, 72 people were subject to a deprivation order between 2011 and 2015.
“We have planned and prepared for the risk posed by British returnees as Daesh [Islamic State] is defeated in Iraq and Syria and we are using a range of tools to disrupt and diminish that threat,” said UK security minister Ben Wallace.
Britain’s security chiefs believe at least 850 fighters have travelled to Iraq and Syria to fight with the ISIS and about half have returned.