5 killed in Algiers rap concert stampede

Algiers: Five young people were killed and dozens more injured in a stampede at a packed rap concert in the Algerian capital, a spokesman for rescue services said Friday.

The stampede took place Thursday night as fans thronged an entrance of the August-20 Stadium where rapper Soolking was to perform.

The 29-year-old has won a huge number of fans in the North African country, his song La Liberte (Freedom) becoming a mainstay of antigovernment protests that enter their seventh month on Friday.

Captain Nassim Bernaoui of the civil protection unit told AFP there were five killed in the crush: “two young girls aged 19 and 22 and three boys aged 13, 21 and 16.”

Dozens of people were lightly injured, Bernaoui said, 86 of whom were treated on the spot with another 32 taken to hospital.

Eight others were transferred to the Mustapha Pacha hospital in Algiers in critical condition, he added. A medic, who asked to remain anonymous, later said seven people were still in hospital in a critical condition, without giving details on the eighth.

In front of the hospital, Ahmed Kadi had red eyes as he waited to collect the body of his 18year-old daughter Chourouk.

“I didn’t even know that my wife and my daughter had gone to the concert,” he said, holding back tears. They had been separated in the stampede.