George Stephanopoulos

Monday, July 26, 2010

Britons tell of crush horror: I was told to start playing even as revellers were dying at music festival, says DJ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHhEK-PGMu4endofvid
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By James White

Grief: People gather to lay flowers and candles near the accident site in Duisburg, Germany today

Merkel promises 'intense' investigation

The day the Love died: Festival never to be held again out of respect

Victims 'had stamp marks on their faces'

19 people crushed to death, 342 injured, 1.4million attending festival

A British DJ at the German music festival where 19 people were crushed to death said he was told by organisers to start playing despite knowing a stampede had occurred.

Mark Knight, 37, said the organisers of the Love Parade were 'quite adamant' his set should begin as people were dying in a mass crush only a few hundred yards away.

The tragedy happened at teatime on Saturday as hundreds of thousands of revellers attended the techno festival in the city of Duisburg.

Victim: The position of the 15th body to be found by rescuers is marked inside the tunnel among debris

Those who died were caught in the crush outside a 360ft-long tunnel which was the only entrance and exit at the venue, a disused railway freight station. Another 342 were injured.

Survivors said they had warned police that the area was becoming overcrowded. German media said up to 1.4million people attended the festival.

Mobile phone footage show thousands clambering to get away from the crush.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has promised an 'intense' investigation into the deaths as witnesses blamed police for closing the entrance tunnel.

Meanwhile Love Parade organiser Rainer Schaller said the event would never be held again out of respect for the victims.

Horror: A woman is struck by grief at the scene of the Love Parade disaster which killed 19 people

'The Love Parade was always a peaceful event and a happy party,' but would forever be overshadowed by the tragedy, he said.

A young woman told the German news that DJs went on to the main stage to play and a lot of people were completely unaware of what was going on.

'It was a weird atmosphere. I would say 50 per cent of the people knew of the magnitude of the situation and the other 50 per cent were going about their business as normal.'

Mr Knight, who this year was nominated for a Grammy for his work with the American group Black Eyed Peas, added: 'Those at the event were not given enough information about what was happening.

Questions: Candles, flowers and soft toys are left by a sign asking simply Why? in the aftermath of the tragedy

Panic: A man manages to climb to safety from the crush as thousands of people gather at the tunnel

'The fact that there was only one entrance to the whole site, it just didn't make any sense.'

Another Briton, Alan Donaldson, described the stampede as 'a nightmare' and said of conditions outside the tunnel: 'There were so many people - it was way too small.

'This is the first time I have seen people die and it happened in front of me. What a waste of life. Someone needs to go to jail for this because people died for absolutely nothing.'

Salil Bhate, from Romford, Essex, said: 'It wasn't until I saw people being resuscitated that I understood how serious this was. The number of people I saw lying on the floor was ridiculous. They had stamp marks on their faces.'

The police had announced at 5.34pm that the festival grounds had reached capacity and were being closed - but later, officials said the grounds had not been full at the time of the tragedy.

Destruction: Police examine debris (left) around crushed crowd barriers at the tunnel entrance and (right) Hannelore Kraft the governor of North Rhine-Westphalia places flowers near the accident site in Duisburg

Crowded: An aerial view of the Love Parade site - a former goods station - earlier in the day where hundreds of thousands of people gathered

Shrine: Tributes to the dead ravers build up near the tunnel as an onlooker contemplates the sign saying Why?

It is believed there were simply too many people trying to get too quickly through too small a space.

Most of those who died were trampled underfoot or crushed against the wall outside the tunnel as they tried to get clear.

One witness said: 'We really would have liked to turn around and go home, but it was impossible. There was no turning back.'

Yesterday, as German Chancellor Angela Merkel paid her respects to the dead and injured and a criminal investigation was launched into what happened, the organisers said the event would never take place again out of respect for those who lost their lives.

The dead were aged between 16 and 40. Among them were four non-Germans - a Chinese citizen, an Italian, an Australian and one from The Netherlands. Sixteen of the 19 have been identified.

Up to 1.4million people had flocked to the city for the event, although not all had necessarily gone to the venue. Wolfgang Rabe, an official in charge of the emergency response, said the site 'can hold 300,000 people and it was at no time full'.