A violent storm hit an outdoor rock music festival yesterday in northern Belgium, leaving at least one person dead and seven others seriously injured, fire-fighters said.

Two stages collapsed, one falling on the concert-goers. Some giant screens also fell down and trees were uprooted by the fierce storm.

Tens of thousands of people had flocked to the annual outdoor concert and many were under a big tent, sheltered from the rains and listening to the group Smith Westerns, when it collapsed, according to the RTBF public television website. Ambulances rushed to the scene as the concert came to a halt.

Last year at the festival’s 25th season, two tragedies occurred: a sound engineer died of a heart attack, and a rock singer, Charles Haddon, committed suicide by jumping from the top of a pylon after his group performed.

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