Tear gas triggers lethal stampede at nightclub

At least 17 people died after a tear-gas canister was set off inside a club in a middle-class neighbourhood of western Caracas.

The victims, eight of whom were younger than 18, suffered either asphyxia or trauma to the body as hundreds of clubgoers stampeded to escape the fumes. Most of the crowd were teenagers who were celebrating their high school graduations at the private Club Social El Paraiso, according to government officials and security forces.

“A fight started at midnight, and one of the people activated a gas artifact that originated the stampede of more than 500 people that were there,” Interior Minister Ne´stor Reverol said on state television.

He said seven people had been detained based on witnesses’ accounts. The club has been closed down, and the person in charge of it is also in custody.

“The Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela deplores this sad event and sends condolences to family members of the victims,” Reverol said.

It’s unclear how a civilian gained access to a tear-gas canister. Such devices are used by security forces to break up protests that regularly fill the streets of Venezuela, which has been rocked by hyperinflation and shortages of even the most basic of goods.

“Tear-gas bombs should be in hands of national armed forces and distributed by anti-riot brigades,” said university professor Mo´nica Kra¨uter, who has studied the damages and ethics in use of tear gas. “This is a chemical arm. How can a young kid or any civilian have access to it?”

Gladys Guerra, 58, had come from a suburb two hours west of Caracas after finding out that one of her nephews had died and another was injured. Of her deceased nephew, who was 21, she said the family called him “nene,” or baby. Her other nephew is 18. She said she didn’t know details of his injuries. “There’s many deaths, but it’s your loved one you focus on . . . It’s too hard to cope.”