17 dead as tear gas triggers wild stampede at nightclub

CARACAS, VENEZUELA — At least 17 people died early Saturday after a tear-gas canister was set off inside a club in a middle-class neighborhood of western Caracas, officials said.

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 present were teenagers who were celebrating their high school graduations at the private Social Club 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 Néstor 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 Mónica Kräuter, whose recently published doctoral thesis explores 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?” she said.

“With the information available now, it looks like some of the victims suffered mechanical asphyxia because there were 500 people in a relatively small and closed space, and with the desperation, they probably inhaled faster and more than they normally would,” Krauter said. “Tear gas is absolutely lethal if used in closed spaces, and of course even more so if people have no protection.”