Spectators die as stands cave in during bullf ight
Several tiers of crowded stands in an improvised bullring collapsed during a bullfight in central Colombia yesterday, leaving as many as five people dead and hundreds injured – figures that could increase in the coming hours – as terrified spectators were trapped in the rubble.
The tragedy took place in El Espinal, a small town some 153 kilometres southwest of Bogotá .
Footage on social media showed dozens of people teasing and playing with a wounded bull during an event known as corraleja. Suddenly, three levels of stands gave way, trapping hundreds of men, women and children underneath. As people screamed, some tried to heave wood and other debris aside.
‘‘It was the gate the bulls go through that stopped the collapse. Otherwise we’d be talking about a much bigger tragedy,’’ spectator Hector Ortiz, 64, said.
Every year, the mayor’s office and private parties in El Espinal organise events to celebrate the Feast of Saint Peter. The bullring is erected for a spectacle that originated on the Caribbean coast when Colombia was a Spanish colony. Unlike in traditional Spanish bullfighting, the bulls are not ordinarily killed in a corraleja, and spectators are invited to run around with the animal still in the ring.
El Espinal’s bullring was built with bamboo, and the multiple levels were packed with spectators. ‘‘A gadua bamboo structure is pretty unstable,’’ said Luis Fernando Velez, head of the regional civil defence agency. ‘‘Organisers should have foreseen this could happen.’’
A 14-month-old baby was among the dead. More than a dozen children were injured and others were missing, having been beside their parents at the bullring when the structure gave way, Velez said.
He said 50 civil defence volunteers were working to transfer the most serious cases of nearly 300 injured spectators to the town’s one hospital. Firefighters and police also helped.
On Twitter, Colombia President Ivá n Duque called for a prompt investigation.
The incident reminded of a similar corraleja disaster in 1980 in the Caribbean town of Sincelejo. More than 500 people died when the makeshift stands there collapsed.
‘‘This had already happened before in Sincelejo,’’ tweeted president-elect Gustavo Petro, who will take office in August. ‘‘I request local authorities to refrain from authorising more spectacles with the death of persons or animals.’’
Petro had sparked outrage as mayor of Bogotá when he banned bullfighting. Yesterday he seemed ready to wage the same battle nationally.
Having witnessed the disaster, Ortiz said: ‘‘I think this is the end for corralejas in El Espinal.’’