The death toll from the crush at Germany’s Love Parade festival rose to 21 yesterday, as a preliminary investigation blamed organisers for a litany of safety flaws leading to the tragedy.
Prosecutors said that a 25-year-old German woman succumbed overnight to her injuries from a panicked stampede in a narrow tunnel that served as the only entrance to the grounds hosting Saturday’s techno music festival.
“I find it outrageous that the organisers and the city of Duisburg have absolved themselves of responsibility before all the facts are known,” said Ralf Jaeger, interior minister of the local state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
Presenting the initial findings of the report, the state’s chief of police, Dieter Wehe, catalogued a host of mistakes on the part of the organisers that led to the tragedy in which more than 500 people were injured.
First, the grounds opened nearly two hours later than promised, leading to an initial blockage in the tunnel, Mr Wehe said.
Thereafter, police said organisers were incapable of dispersing the crowds at the tunnel’s exit, partly because there were fewer stewards than promised and partly because there were no loudspeakers to control the crowd.
When the scale of the crush became clear, police ordered stewards to close the heaving access points but this order was not carried out, Mr Wehe said.
People desperate to escape the panic in the tunnel then clambered up a very narrow set of steps leading from the tunnel to higher ground. Most of the victims died on or around these concrete steps.
“More and more people pushed towards the steps, whereupon the pressure in this area became considerable. Pieces of fencing lying on the ground may have tripped people up,” said Mr Wehe.
“All the victims suffocated in the crush,” said Wehe, his voice cracking and close to tears.
Love Parade organiser Rainer Schaller earlier defended himself in an interview with mass circulation Bild daily, saying he “never put anyone under pressure” to hold the festival. He acknowledged there were qualms but said there were always concerns over an event of this magnitude and pushed the blame back onto the city of Duisburg, whose under-fire mayor Adolf Sauerland authorised the parade.
“When I get a permit from the authorities that has been examined over a six-month period and has been discussed with all participants, then I have to assume as an organiser that everything will work,” said Mr Schaller.
He also waved away claims that profit played a part in the determination to hold the event come what may.