Hundreds injured as platform caves in at Spanish music festival
PANIC erupted at a packed music festival in Spain when a section of a wooden promenade collapsed, injuring more than 300 people, nine of them seriously, officials said.
The seafront platform, which was 100ft long and 30ft wide, was jammed with people watching a rap artist in the north-western city of Vigo when it suddenly caved in just before midnight on Sunday, Abel Caballero, the local mayor, told reporters at the scene. He later announced an investigation.
Rescuers using an infrared camera combed the site for three hours, to ensure no one remained trapped underneath, while divers searched the nearby sea, Mr Caballero said.
“Police got the people out of the area very quickly. There were two people who got trapped by debris. Firefighters had to remove them and it was not easy to get them out,” he said in an interview with Spanish public television TVE.
Mr Caballero said it was not clear what caused the collapse of the promenade, which was built in the Nineties. El Faro de Vigo, the local newspaper, said it happened shortly after Rels B, a Spanish rap artist, told the crowd to jump at the start of his concert.
“The floor gave way beneath us as if we were in an elevator. It was a question of five seconds,” Aitana Alonso, a concertgoer, told the paper.
“The platform broke and we all fell. People landed on top of me. I tried to get out and couldn’t. My foot ended up stuck in the water but I managed to free it before a guy gave me his hand and pulled me out,” she said.
“There were people underneath me, shouting that they couldn’t get out.”
A total of 316 people were injured, including nine seriously, according to a statement from the regional government of Galicia.