Festival fire forces 20,000 fans to flee

BARCELONA, Spain — A fire at a music festival in Spain forced the evacuation of more than 20,000 concertgoers and incinerated the event’s stage in Barcelona, the regional government said Sunday.

The fire Saturday night consumed the large outdoor stage at the Tomorrowland electronic music festival held at Barcelona’s Parc de Can Zam. Twelve firefighting units needed around an hour to extinguish the flames just before midnight Barcelona time.

The Tomorrowland website published a statement saying the “stage caught fire due to a technical malfunction.”

Barcelona firefighters said there were no serious injuries during the evacuation, but the event’s private security treated 20 people for minor injuries or anxiety.

In a statement, regional authorities said the fire “completely destroyed the stage” and that its charred remains “run the risk of collapsing.”