Five people have died at a Belgian pop festival close to the Dutch border, after it was struck by a fierce storm that knocked down screens and collapsed tents.
Three of the victims died at the festival, two others succumbed to their injuries in hospital. A further ten festival-goers are seriously injured, three of them Dutch. Three people are reported to be in a critical condition. Hilde Claes, mayor of the eastern Belgian city of Hasselt told Belgian television that some 65 people had more minor injuries.
Some 60,000 to 65,000 mainly young people were attending the sold-out festival when the violent thunderstorm struck early in the evening. Many were sheltering in large festival tents, which were whipped away by strong gusts of wind.
"The storm struck in an incredibly sudden way," said Claes, who was there. "It was a real whirlwind. I have never seen anything like it in Hasselt before."
Smith Westerns
The three-day Pukkelpop festival was set to have featured rapper Eminem and U.S. bands Foo Fighters and The Offspring. Many of the artists are scheduled to appear at Lowlands festival in the Netherlands, which is also being held this weekend. US band Smith Westerns, which was on stage in the tent that collapsed, has lost all its equipment.
Radio Netherlands Worldwide's reporter Tijn Sadee, who was at the scene, spoke to shocked festival-goers. One girl describes her narrow escape when a tree fell on her tent just after she had got out of it. A young man describes how he saw a branch fall on the head of a 20-year-old man, his girlfriend rushed over and held him in her arms as he died moments later. The sirens of the emergency services could be heard in the background, while some said they are going home, others promised to return if the festival continued.
Lowlands
Many people complained that there was no information from the organisation about what to do and where to go. Organisers decided early on Friday to cancel the rest of the festival. Initially, they had said the festival would continue. Many of the festival-goers had already left the site.
The Belgian disaster comes just five days after five people died when an outdoor concert stage collapsed in heavy winds at the Indiana State Fair in the United States. The organisers of Lowlands festival, a few hundred kilometres to the north, near Amsterdam, say they will pay close attention to the weather conditions, although fine weather is predicted for the time being.
(sources: Reuters/NOS/ANP)
(nc/rk)
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Very tragic and touching, God bless them..