Five dead after storm strikes Belgian pop festival
August 19, 2011 04:45 pm
HASSELT, Belgium (AP) — The death toll from a fierce thunderstorm that mangled tents and downed trees and scaffolding at an open-air music festival in Belgium has risen to five, officials said Friday.
Hasselt Mayor Hilde Claes said that two more people died overnight. About 140 were injured in the storm, 10 of them seriously, she said.
All the dead were Belgians, Claes said.
Organizers canceled the annual Pukkelpop festival near Hasselt, 50 miles (80 kilometers) east of Brussels. Buses and trains were pressed into service to transfer the 60,000 festival goers home.
Thousands of mud-splattered young people, many of them shoeless, trekked down the avenue leading from the festival venue to train and bus stations in Hasselt. Many had stayed on in the camping ground in the vain hope that the performances would continue on Friday.
The brief, violent thunderstorm on Thursday evening tore down concert tents, several trees and main stage scaffolding. Panicked concertgoers ran through fields of mud looking for shelter.
At a joint news conference Friday, Hasselt officials and festival organizers described weather conditions at the event’s opening day as exceptional. They said weather forecasters in the area had not predicted a storm of that intensity.
The Belgian weather service did not provide the speed of the wind, saying only that the storm was “violent.”
Chokri Mahassine, the organizer of the annual festival that was first held in 1985, said he had never seen anything like it.
“I have seen many tropical storms, but this was unprecedented,” he told journalists. He said he canceled the event “out of respect for the victims, their relatives and friends we felt that the concert could not continue.”
“This is the blackest day that any Belgian festival has experienced,” Mahassine said. “I would not wish this on anybody.”
Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme offered condolences to the families of the victims and said authorities would continue to provide assistance in caring for the injured.
Hasselt Mayor Hilde Claes said that two more people died overnight. About 140 were injured in the storm, 10 of them seriously, she said.
All the dead were Belgians, Claes said.
Organizers canceled the annual Pukkelpop festival near Hasselt, 50 miles (80 kilometers) east of Brussels. Buses and trains were pressed into service to transfer the 60,000 festival goers home.
Thousands of mud-splattered young people, many of them shoeless, trekked down the avenue leading from the festival venue to train and bus stations in Hasselt. Many had stayed on in the camping ground in the vain hope that the performances would continue on Friday.
The brief, violent thunderstorm on Thursday evening tore down concert tents, several trees and main stage scaffolding. Panicked concertgoers ran through fields of mud looking for shelter.
At a joint news conference Friday, Hasselt officials and festival organizers described weather conditions at the event’s opening day as exceptional. They said weather forecasters in the area had not predicted a storm of that intensity.
The Belgian weather service did not provide the speed of the wind, saying only that the storm was “violent.”
Chokri Mahassine, the organizer of the annual festival that was first held in 1985, said he had never seen anything like it.
“I have seen many tropical storms, but this was unprecedented,” he told journalists. He said he canceled the event “out of respect for the victims, their relatives and friends we felt that the concert could not continue.”
“This is the blackest day that any Belgian festival has experienced,” Mahassine said. “I would not wish this on anybody.”
Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme offered condolences to the families of the victims and said authorities would continue to provide assistance in caring for the injured.
