• 2001 (December 18th) Free Christmas Gift Distribution Creates Crush And Death. Four people died, including three children, when a poorly planned and managed government sponsored Christmas gift giveaway program for children went awry in Aracaju, Brazil. Forty to forty-five thousand people showed up at a public building for the holiday event, approximately the crowd size anticipated. Tens of thousands of people waiting to receive their free gifts were caught in a craze when one of the main gates opened triggering a surge and crush, according to local news reports. In spite of the deaths, government authorities continued the distribution of toys, after order was restored.

• 2001 (December 22nd) SEVEN DIE IN DISCO CROWD DISASTER Seven pre-teens and teens died in a crowd trampling in Sofia, Bulgaria, on Friday night. The victims--between 10-and 14-years-old--were among thousands of young people celebrating the start of the Christmas holiday at the Indigo, the country's largest disco club. Tomas Shumaher, a popular German DJ headlined the event. From national news media accounts, it appears the disaster was triggered by poor crowd management and by entrance stairs that were described as "icy." There are also conflicting reports about a possible structural collapse inside the club. Approximately 1000 to 1500 young people were waiting to enter the already crowded club when the entrance doors were "suddenly" opened, according to one Bulgarian news wire report. Many in the young crowd likely slipped on the icy stairs as the formerly waiting mass of ticket holders surged forward toppling people in front of them. Many in the crowd found themselves trapped and then trampled. Suffocation was pronounced the cause of death for the seven killed in the crush. President-elect Georgi Parnanov told the AFP news wire, "Conditions in the disco were primitive and this incident should have been foreseen." An official day of mourning will correspond with the burial of the victims. In the meantime, the Interior Ministry closed all disco clubs in Bulgaria to review current club security and crowd management procedures. Yesterday's tragic outcome is common to public assembly events where patrons waiting to enter a place are not properly organized or processed. The Indigo disco disaster was easily avoidable.

• 2002 (Jan 8th) Japanese Mall Event Organizers Create Crowd Craze--10 Injured. The Tama Plaza Tokyu Shopping Centre in Yokohama, Japan, thought they had a good publicity stunt for the first day of the new year. What they really planned was a classic crowd craze situation that caused injury to at least 10 people, two of whom were sent to a local hospital. The marketing scheme went like this: A promotion offering "lucky bags" ("fukubukuro") containing merchandise more valuable than their retail price were offered to the public by the shopping Centre on New Year's day. As a result, a large crowd lined up at the shopping Centre to obtain the specially priced bags. Anxiety and competitiveness developed in the waiting crowd, as could be anticipated. When the doors of the Centre opened mid morning, the shoppers surged forward. The craze caused a crowd collapse as people toppled over each other.

• 2004 (Sept 3rd) IKEA Regrets Fatal Stampede JEDDAH, 3 September 2004 — The management of IKEA has expressed its sorrow for the fatal incident that took place during the opening of its new showroom in Jeddah on Wednesday morning. “As the main door opened around 9 a.m., an hour before the scheduled time because of the swelling crowd, those standing toward the end of the queue caused the stampede by pushing their way toward the main entrance,” Amin M. Jamal, executive vice president of IKEA - Ghassan Ahmed Al Sulaiman Co. Ltd., told Arab News. “People at the tail end of the crowd turned ‘adventurous’ when they found there were no prospects of getting close to the door. They pushed their way by jumping over others in front and even trampling upon those who lost their balance and lay on the ground,” Jamal said. All security arrangements were in place, he claimed, as a big crowd was anticipated. “However, in spite of the arrangements made by our own security and official agencies that were tried and tested in the past few weeks, the fatal incident took pace, which we regret. Fortunately, no child was involved in the stampede. We take full responsibility for the unfortunate incident if it is found that it happened due to our safety and security lapses,” Jamal said. The IKEA management expected 3,000 to 5,000 shoppers to visit the showroom for its opening. “We didn’t expect 20,000, especially as it was a working day and the morning was hot and humid,” he said, adding that the turnout was big because of the Swedish furniture company’s “popularity and reputation.” “Of course, there are many ways of offering discounts and prizes,” Jamal said. “Man learns from experience. We now have a case to evaluate and analyze on which to organize ourselves in the future,” he said in the context of the stampede.

Yet a few months later the incident was repeated in London....

• 10th February 2005. Man Stabbed in Ikea Opening Chaos. London - Edmonton. Safety fears forced the store to shut 30 minutes after it opened. A man was stabbed and several people hurt in the crush as a crowd of thousands forced a flagship Ikea superstore to close on its opening night. Cars were abandoned on the roadside and customers were crushed in the chaos which ensued after the furniture store in north London launched at midnight. The new outlet in Edmonton, the biggest Ikea in England, was due to trade for a full 24 hours, but shut up shop within around half an hour after an "unforeseen volume of customers'' descended in the early hours. A spokeswoman said it was decided to close for the safety of customers and staff, and the store would remain shut until further notice. "Ikea Edmonton regrets to announce that a decision has been taken to close the store on opening night. "The decision was made in the interests of health and safety for all Ikea customers and co-workers,'' she said.
   

• From the ITN internet news. Furniture giant Ikea was forced to shut its flagship superstore on its opening night after chaos broke out and a man was stabbed. Over 4,000 people had flocked to the store which was touting cut-price offers throughout the 24-hour opening, including a three-seater leather sofa for £45.But after around 30 minutes, it was decided it should close for the safety of customers and staff. Would-be bargain-hunters abandoned their cars on the A406 north circular road, with one person stabbed and others suffering crush injuries and heat exhaustion in the chaos, according to the emergency services. The new store in Edmonton, north London, the biggest Ikea outlet in England, opened at midnight and was due to trade for a full 24 hours. A London Ambulance Service spokesman said nine ambulances, one rapid response car, four officers and an emergency control vehicle were sent to the scene. He added: "Six adult patients were treated and taken to hospital, three each to North Middlesex and Whipps Cross hospitals. Of these, one man had been stabbed and another patient was experiencing chest pains. "The four other people were understood to have sustained a range of minor injuries. "A spokeswoman for Scotland Yard said: "Many people abandoned their vehicles in the middle of the A406, making their way to the store on foot. This has caused severe traffic difficulties. "A spokeswoman for London Fire Brigade said: "We were called to assist London Ambulance Service - attendance was delayed by approximately 1,000 cars getting into the store car park. "There were 22 persons suffering from heat exhaustion and crush injuries ... and approximately 3,000 members of the public were discharged from the site by the police."

• Later reports cite the numbers closer to 6,000 people at the Ikea riots.

Contact Easingwold (The Cabinet Office Emergency Planning College) for further information.

As with many of these news reports - I've been sent clippings and details from many people - could you please ensure that web links, copyright and other information is included - otherwise it takes me ages to track down the appropriate sources. We re-print these details in the interests of public safety and the numerous workshops and research activities we are involved in around the world. If you are going to quote from this website please check our disclaimer page. Also click here for links to other stadium disasters.

The Price of a Pilgrimage - Danger called an inherent factor when throngs gather for religious observances

By Andrea Useem
RELIGION NEWS SERVICE - Saturday, September 10, 2005.

The stampede during a Shiite religious pilgrimage in Baghdad on Aug. 31, which left nearly 1,000 dead, was not the first time that a large number of Muslims have died as they performed religious rituals. As recently as last year, almost 250 pilgrims died in a stampede near Mecca during an annual Muslim pilgrimage. An earlier stampede during the hajj, in 1990, left more than 1,450 dead in a pedestrian tunnel. Experts say that mass religious gatherings always carry the danger of stampedes - and that such danger is sometimes seen as a sacrificial aspect of the pilgrimage. Nonetheless, they say practical steps, such as clear signage, can and should be taken to control crowds and save lives. "Any environment where millions of people converge has a significant risk associated with the dynamics of crowds," said G. Keith Still, the founder of Crowd Dynamics, a British consulting company, in a statement on its Web site.

Religious gatherings have claimed the most casualties over the years, but secular gatherings have posed similar hazards. Stampedes at sports stadiums and entertainment venues claimed 1,952 lives worldwide since 1988, according to data compiled by Crowd Dynamics. In that same period, 2,586 died in tramplings at religious events - all of them in Saudi Arabia, India and Pakistan. A particular trouble spot has been the Jamarat Bridge in Mina, Saudi Arabia. On a single day during the annual three-day hajj ritual, 2.5 million pilgrims attempt to gather around one of three stone pillars representing the devil and cast small stones at it in an act of purification. In the past 11 years, four stampedes have left 699 dead and many more injured. Michael Wolfe, an American Muslim who has written two books about the hajj, said that one problem has been the crowd flow around the three pillars. When people finished throwing their stones and turned to leave, others were pressing forward to cast their stones, he said. "But there is also an enthusiasm factor. Stoning the pillars is the last rite of hajj, and throwing the stones can be a physical release. People really want to get into it," said Wolfe, explaining why pilgrims surged forward even before others cleared the way. In response to the recurrent tragedies on the bridge, Saudi officials have started an expansion and renovation project that will eventually allow 4 million pilgrims to pass over the bridge in one day. Part of the project was already completed by the 2005 hajj season and was credited with the lack of fatalities. An important aspect of crowd control at the Jamarat Bridge was providing more information, like signage, wrote Still, whose Crowd Dynamics consultancy was hired by Saudi authorities to help redesign the bridge. "Lack of information can turn a passive crowd into a stampede. The consequences of a crowd crush can be much worse than the incident" that triggers it, wrote Still in the U.K.'s Guardian newspaper in 2003. In the same article he warned that public fears about terrorism make a crowd especially vulnerable to stampedes - all factors that seemed to be at play in Baghdad in August. The stampede on the al-Aima bridge was reportedly sparked when rumors about a suicide bomber caused a panic. With little information and no exit routes, many died when they jumped or were pushed into the Tigris River below. Under Saddam Hussein's regime, few Shiites were allowed to visit their holy sites, and religious leaders have urged worshippers to turn out in large numbers to show their strength in the post-Saddam era, according to Iraq observers. Yet Iraq's infrastructure and law enforcement do not yet seem capable of safely handling large crowds. Safe mass pilgrimage is possible, as demonstrated by the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadaloupe in Mexico, the largest pilgrimage site in the Western hemisphere. More than 1 million worshippers gather there for a special feast day each year, and no major stampedes have occurred, said Timothy Matovina, a theology professor at the University of Notre Dame who has attended the feast day. Matovina described how site planners have constructed a sort of conveyor belt system, with several moving walkways that pass in front of the image of Our Lady of Guadaloupe, which is the main sacred attraction at the basilica. As desirable as it may seem to make all pilgrimages safe and comfortable, a certain degree of hardship has always been part of the pilgrimage experience, according to Kerry Walters, a philosophy professor at Gettysburg College who has studied the phenomenon. "Medieval accounts of Westerners going to Jerusalem are filled with stories of harrowing dangers," Walters said. "The quality of the pilgrimage was proportionate to the amount of danger faced. It became a virtue in and of itself."

Monday, 31, October, 2005 (28, Ramadhan, 1426)  7 Die in Rush to Receive Zakat Hassan Adawi, Arab News JEDDAH, 31 October 2005 Seven people died and more than 40 were injured in a stampede in Makkah after prayers in the Grand Mosque as many hundreds rushed to grab charity cash handouts early yesterday. The incident occurred on Lailat Al-Qadr (the Night of Power) on Ramadan 27 when a philanthropist distributed zakat money directly to the needy in a car park some six kilometers from the mosque. Police rushed to the scene and eventually restored order, controlling the crowd sufficiently to allow access for ambulances from the Red  Crescent to get through to the dead and injured. They were taken to nearby hospitals for treatment and identification. Ahmad Al-Harbi, a resident of Makkah, told Arab News that he had helped in taking the injured to hospitals. He said those who had died in the stampede were taken to Al-Noor Hospital in Makkah. According to Al-Harbi, the crowd that gathered to receive the charity included Saudis as well as expatriates. He said that most of the injured were women and that this was the first time such a stampede had taken place during the distribution of zakat in the city. “More and more people rushed to the parking lot when they heard about the charity handouts,” Al-Harbi said while explaining the reason for the stampede. He said he noticed that the crowd that gathered for the charity included even some wealthier people who owned luxury cars. No foreign pilgrims were involved in the stampede.

Stampede at Philippine stadium kills 79 Sat 4 Feb, 2006 6:14:04 GMT By John O'Callaghan MANILA (Reuters) - Seventy-nine people were killed in a stampede at a stadium in Manila on Saturday as they scrambled to get tickets for a popular Philippine television game show, the government and witnesses said. Most of the dead were elderly women, crushed against a closed steel gate at the bottom of a slope or trampled underfoot. One child was killed, hospital officials said. Some witnesses said chaos erupted when someone shouted "bomb" but most survivors blamed the crowd surging for the tickets. "My mother came here hoping to win a prize," said one man in his 20s,holding her dead hand and sobbing. More than 200 injured people were taken to one government hospital. Some survivors went to private hospitals and their number was not immediately known. Police said as many as 25,000 people were lining up outside the Ultra stadium when guards started to handout ticket sat dawn for the first anniversary celebration of the game show  "Wowowee". "The slope was so steep that when one person stumbled, they fell like dominoes," said Manila's police chief, Vidal Querol.An army truck took the bodies to a funeral parlour after they had been lined up on the street, their faces covered with towels, sheets and newspapers. Hundreds of shoes and flip-flops were scattered across a narrow driveway. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo visited the injured in hospital and was due to survey the scene of thestampede.The Philippines is no stranger to large-scale disasters, most often involving typhoons, volcanoes, earthquakes or ferries, as well as deadly attacks by Muslim and communist rebels. Stampedes are relatively rare, although a crush at a crowded religious procession in the capital last month killed one man and injured 20. TICKET OUT OF POVERTY Some tickets for the "Wowowee" show were given away this week but many fans camped out for days to get tickets at the gate. Even after the stampede, thousands of people refused to leave the area because they wanted a chance at the usual jackpot of 1 million pesos(54,000 pounds) and a special prize for the anniversary of a house and plot of land. Ambulances had trouble reaching the scene because of the large crowd. The ABS-CBN network cancelled the event and appealed to those inside and outside the stadium to go home. "It's insensitive to continue the show, "Charo Santos-Concio, head of entertainment at the network, said on television. "We're all devastated." ABS-CBN said it would pay for the funeral and hospital expenses of victims and survivors. "Wowowee", on six days a week at midday, is one of the most-watched shows in the Philippines and by communities of Filipinos living abroad. "The guards could not control the crowd. People were climbing on the roof of a pathway, scaling the fences just to get inside and rushing to a narrow gate," Susan Doblin, who travelled from the central island of Leyte, told Reuters. "We're very poor. I waited for days outside to try our luck. This is a rare chance for us to win a million pesos." (With reporting by Manny Mogato, Pedro Uchi and Dolly Aglay) Philippines begins inquiry of games how stampede Sun 5 Feb, 2006 2:48:32 GMT By John O'Callaghan MANILA (Reuters) - The Philippine government summoned television executives and security officials to an inquiry on Sunday to determine why74 people died in a stampede for a popular game show giving away cash and prizes. Saturday's tragedy at a stadium in Manila illustrated the desperation of poor Filipinos hoping to win a small fortune or even a minor prize at the first anniversary celebration of the show "Wowowee", commentators and politicians said. Most of the victims were elderly women who were crushed against a steel gate at the bottom of a slope or trampled underfoot as a crowd as large as 50,000 surged forward to try to get a coveted seat inside the stadium. Nearly 400 people were injured. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ordered a five-member panel to submit a report within 72 hours. The fact-finding body was due to interview executives from the ABS-CBN network, the show's host and the chief of security for the event. "Was there, in the first place, a failure on the part of the show's producers and the anniversary event organisers to prepare for just such an emergency?" the Philippine Daily Inquirer said in an editorial." Was there a failure (a failing shared by many Filipinos, as disaster prevention experts tell us again and again) to imagine that bad things could actually happen? "Witnesses said chaos broke out whena barricade collapsed as people were being let into the stadium, causing guards to panic and slam shut the gate as the crowd pressed forward. Manila's police chief, Vidal Querol, said that once people began stumbling on the slope, "they fell like dominoes ".Before being taken to morgues, the bodies had been lined up on the street, their faces covered with towels and newspapers as grieving relatives and friends crouched beside them. Shoes, handbags and half-eaten snacks were scattered on the pavement. Some tickets had been given out earlier in the week for the anniversary show of "Wowowee", which selects contestants at random from the audience. But thousands of fans, many of them poor and flocking from the provinces, had camped out for days for a chance at the show's usual jackpot of 1million pesos ($19,230) and special prizes of a car and a house with land. "GOOD LESSON" The head of security at ABS-CBN, Rene Luspo, said his team anticipated the crowd would be unruly and had taken "adequate" precautions but that the crush was "more than we expected". "We thought we had done all that was humanly possible," he said. Arroyo's political opponents used the tragedy to take a swipe at her economic record, saying Filipinos would not have risked their lives for prizes on a game show if they had better opportunities. But even Vice President Noli de Castro, a former newscaster at ABS-CBN, acknowledged that the disaster was a "good lesson" for the network's management and the government." Wowowee", on six days a week at midday, is one of the most-watched shows in the Philippines and by communities of Filipinos living abroad." We're very poor. I waited for days outside to try our luck," Susan Doblin, who travelled from the central island of Leyte, told Reuters at the stadium on Saturday. "This is a rare chance for us to win a million pesos." Stampede at Philippine stadium kills 79 Sat 4 Feb, 2006 6:14:04 GMT By John O'Callaghan MANILA (Reuters) - Seventy-nine people were killed in a stampede at a stadium in Manila on Saturday as they scrambled to get tickets for a popular Philippine television game show, the government and witnesses said. Most of the dead were elderly women, crushed against a closed steel gate at the bottom of a slope or trampled underfoot. One child was killed, hospital officials said. Some witnesses said chaos erupted when someone shouted "bomb" but most survivors blamed the crowd surging for the tickets. "My mother came here hoping to win a prize," said one man in his 20s,holding her dead hand and sobbing. More than 200 injured people were taken to one government hospital. Some survivors went to private hospitals and their number was not immediately known. Police said as many as 25,000 people were lining up outside the Ultra stadium when guards started to handout ticket sat dawn for the first anniversary celebration of the game show  "Wowowee". "The slope was so steep that when one person stumbled, they fell like dominoes," said Manila's police chief, Vidal Querol.An army truck took the bodies to a funeral parlour after they had been lined up on the street, their faces covered with towels, sheets and newspapers. Hundreds of shoes and flip-flops were scattered across a narrow driveway. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo visited the injured in hospital and was due to survey the scene of thestampede.The Philippines is no stranger to large-scale disasters, most often involving typhoons, volcanoes, earthquakes or ferries, as well as deadly attacks by Muslim and communist rebels. Stampedes are relatively rare, although a crush at a crowded religious procession in the capital last month killed one man and injured 20. TICKET OUT OF POVERTY Some tickets for the "Wowowee" show were given away this week but many fans camped out for days to get tickets at the gate. Even after the stampede, thousands of people refused to leave the area because they wanted a chance at the usual jackpot of 1 million pesos(54,000 pounds) and a special prize for the anniversary of a house and plot of land. Ambulances had trouble reaching the scene because of the large crowd. The ABS-CBN network cancelled the event and appealed to those inside and outside the stadium to go home. "It's insensitive to continue the show, "Charo Santos-Concio, head of entertainment at the network, said on television. "We're all devastated." ABS-CBN said it would pay for the funeral and hospital expenses of victims and survivors. "Wowowee", on six days a week at midday, is one of the most-watched shows in the Philippines and by communities of Filipinos living abroad. "The guards could not control the crowd. People were climbing on the roof of a pathway, scaling the fences just to get inside and rushing to a narrow gate," Susan Doblin, who travelled from the central island of Leyte, told Reuters. "We're very poor. I waited for days outside to try our luck. This is a rare chance for us to win a million pesos." (With reporting by Manny Mogato, Pedro Uchi and Dolly Aglay) Philippines begins inquiry of games how stampede Sun 5 Feb, 2006 2:48:32 GMT By John O'Callaghan MANILA (Reuters) - The Philippine government summoned television executives and security officials to an inquiry on Sunday to determine why74 people died in a stampede for a popular game show giving away cash and prizes. Saturday's tragedy at a stadium in Manila illustrated the desperation of poor Filipinos hoping to win a small fortune or even a minor prize at the first anniversary celebration of the show "Wowowee", commentators and politicians said. Most of the victims were elderly women who were crushed against a steel gate at the bottom of a slope or trampled underfoot as a crowd as large as 50,000 surged forward to try to get a coveted seat inside the stadium. Nearly 400 people were injured. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ordered a five-member panel to submit a report within 72 hours. The fact-finding body was due to interview executives from the ABS-CBN network, the show's host and the chief of security for the event. "Was there, in the first place, a failure on the part of the show's producers and the anniversary event organisers to prepare for just such an emergency?" the Philippine Daily Inquirer said in an editorial." Was there a failure (a failing shared by many Filipinos, as disaster prevention experts tell us again and again) to imagine that bad things could actually happen? "Witnesses said chaos broke out whena barricade collapsed as people were being let into the stadium, causing guards to panic and slam shut the gate as the crowd pressed forward. Manila's police chief, Vidal Querol, said that once people began stumbling on the slope, "they fell like dominoes ".Before being taken to morgues, the bodies had been lined up on the street, their faces covered with towels and newspapers as grieving relatives and friends crouched beside them. Shoes, handbags and half-eaten snacks were scattered on the pavement. Some tickets had been given out earlier in the week for the anniversary show of "Wowowee", which selects contestants at random from the audience. But thousands of fans, many of them poor and flocking from the provinces, had camped out for days for a chance at the show's usual jackpot of 1million pesos ($19,230) and special prizes of a car and a house with land. "GOOD LESSON" The head of security at ABS-CBN, Rene Luspo, said his team anticipated the crowd would be unruly and had taken "adequate" precautions but that the crush was "more than we expected". "We thought we had done all that was humanly possible," he said. Arroyo's political opponents used the tragedy to take a swipe at her economic record, saying Filipinos would not have risked their lives for prizes on a game show if they had better opportunities. But even Vice President Noli de Castro, a former newscaster at ABS-CBN, acknowledged that the disaster was a "good lesson" for the network's management and the government." Wowowee", on six days a week at midday, is one of the most-watched shows in the Philippines and by communities of Filipinos living abroad." We're very poor. I waited for days outside to try our luck," Susan Doblin, who travelled from the central island of Leyte, told Reuters at the stadium on Saturday. "This is a rare chance for us to win a million pesos."