Crowd Disasters

(updated  18th June 2008)

Keywords: simulating people, simulating crowds, simulating crowd dynamics

We are constantly updating the Crowd Disasters page.  See notes at the bottom of this page.

We run workshops around the world highlighting the dangers of crowd and the most appropriate methods of planning and managing places of public assembly. The information on the website is for the specific purpose of collating all of the reports of incidents to illustrate the common features associated with crowd safety. It serves us well to show that the failures in both design and management are NOT unique, that crowd "mis" behaviour is not always the primary cause of accidents and incidents. One of the common factors is the inappropriate utilisation of space. Spatial Utilisation can be defined in a number of way - click here for further information.

Improving emergency lighting can significantly enhance crowd safety and reduce the risks of progressive crowd collapse.

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Uses of Crowd Dynamics around the world

UK Cabinet Office Emergency Planning College - Workshops

Jamarat Bridge - Saudi Arabia

London New Year Fireworks (Real-Time Decision Support)

Wide Area Evacuation (Real-Time Decision Support and information system)

DWELL Time models - train loading/unloading under high density conditions

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Stampedes

"Crowd forces can reach levels that almost impossible to resist or control. Virtually all crowd deaths are due to compressive asphyxia and not the "trampling" reported by the news media. Evidence of bent steel railings after several fatal crowd incidents show that forces of more than 4500 N (1,000 lbs.) occurred. Forces are due to pushing, and the domino effect of people leaning against each other.

"Compressive asphyxia has occurred from people being stacked up vertically, one on top of the other, or horizontal pushing and leaning forces. In the Ibrox Park soccer stadium incident, police reported that the pile of bodies was 3 m (10 feet) high. At this height, people on the bottom would experience chest pressures of 3600-4000 N (800-900 lbs.), assuming half the weight of those above was concentrated in the upper body area.

"Horizontal forces sufficient to cause compressive asphyxia would be more dynamic as people push off against each other to obtain breathing space. In the Cincinnati rock concert incident, a line of bodies was found approximately 9 m (30 ft) from a wall near the entrance. This indicates that crowd pressures probably came from both directions as rear ranks pressed forward and front ranks pushed off the wall.

"Experiments to determine concentrated forces on guardrails due to leaning and pushing have shown that force of 30% to 75% of participant weight can occur. In a US National Bureau of Standards study of guardrails, three persons exerted a leaning force of 792 N (178 lbs.) and 609 N (137 lbs.) pushing. [9] In a similar Australian Building Technology Centre study, three persons in a combined leaning an pushing posture developed a force of 1370 N (306 lbs.). [10] This study showed that under a simulated "panic", 5 persons were capable of developing a force of 3430 N (766 lbs.)."  From Furin "Causes and Prevention of Disasters"

"We learn from history that we do not learn from history." George Hegel, philosopher.

"There are many examples of poor, and even hazardous, human environments resulting from a lack of understanding of the traffic flow relationships and space requirements of pedestrians. A number of authorities have been using maximum pedestrian capacity as a basis for design. Yet, analysis of time-lapse photography of pedestrian traffic flow on walkways and stairs has shown that capacity is reached when there is a dense crowding of pedestrians, causing restricted and uncomfortable locomotion. Insufficient consideration of human space requirements has resulted in inadequate design of many areas where pedestrians may be required to accumulate in large groups. In some instances, overcrowding of these areas has resulted in injury and loss of life." Fruin. Pedestrian Planning and Design.

"I read your thesis and thought it was excellent, and a great contribution to the art. There should be many applications for your computer model....Wishing you great success with your endeavours. Sincerely, John Fruin"

Dr. John J Fruin, 8th May 2002

 

Here are SOME of the crowd related disasters, around the world. There have been many more...

• 1902 (April 5th) Glasgow, Scotland  25 killed and 517 injured when the West Stand at Ibrox Park collapses during an international between England and Scotland.

• 1914 Hillsborough, Sheffield, 75 injured. Wall collapsed.

• 1946 (March 9) Bolton, England. 33 people are killed and over 500 injured when a wall collapses at Burden Park before an English FA Cup match between Bolton Wanderers and Stoke City. The collapse crushes fans together and sparks a stampede.

• 1955 (March 30) Santiago, Chile. Six died when 70,000 tried to jam into the stadium for the finals of the South American soccer tournament. Argentina beat Chile 1-0.

• 1961 Ibrox, Glasgow. 3 dead, 35 injured. Stand collapsed.

• 1964 (May 24) Lima, Peru. 318 people are killed and another 500 injured in riots at National Stadium after Argentina beats Peru in an Olympic qualifying match. The pandemonium breaks out when the referee disallows a Peruvian goal in the final two minutes. Reports claimed 300 die in a stampede after goal disallowed, Olympic qualifying match. . Eye Witness Account of the 1964 Peru Crowd Disaster. From Frances Blackburn. Santiago, Chile. "I came across your thesis on crowd dynamics online. I was actually in the stadium on May 24, 1964 in Lima, Perú so I know about it from the practical side. I was only 19 and am still alive because my boyfriend and two of his cousins pinned me against a pillar and would not let me run. The story of what happened that day has been greatly simplified over the years and it now appears that the people in the stadium went mad because of the referee's call and brought about the disaster. It was a good deal more complicated than that. The referee's call was hugely unpopular but those were the days when the crowd still applauded a good goal made by the opposing team. A handful of people rushed onto the pitch, the police panicked and fired tear gas directly into the stands. Tear gas should be called something more indicative of what it is. It not only blinds you it makes it difficult to breathe. There is an automatic reaction to get oneself somewhere else. The stadium has the entrance to the stands on ground level. At least, it did. I have never been in it, or any other stadium, since. You climbed up the stairs and came out at mid-level. Because the game was one everyone wanted to see, the guards on the gates locked them and came up the stairs. No one knows how soon after the game started they did this. When the people started running down the stairs they came to locked metal gates. The guards had no hope of getting down to open them once the panic moved the crowd. We waited in the stands for about 45 minutes while one of the boys went to see where it was safe to go out. He was a medical student but he was very pale when he returned. He led us to an open gate and out. When we got outside there were mounted police trying to force people back inside. I have no idea why. Some of the men who came out had been throwing rocks at the police and damaging cars, South American stress relief. I know that the official figure is 318 and that may be true. I think it was more. The police officer in charge of the security who gave the order to fire tear gas into the spectators was shifted around the country for years afterwards from one police station to another and, as far as I know, was never even questioned. about his actions. I have no idea why I am writing to you. Perhaps I am gladdened by the thought that someone is out there working on the movement of crowds and that days like May 24th will be avoided in future. I told you about what happened because the people who died that day deserve an obituary."

• 1967 (September 17). Turkey, Kayseri: spectators at soccer game start fighting using pistols, knifes, and other weapons; 44 people died and approximately 600 were injured

• 1968 (June 23) Buenos Aires. Argentina. 74 people are killed and over 150 injured following a first-division game between River Plate and Boca Juniors when fans trying to leave the stadium mistakenly head toward a closed exit and are crushed against the doors by other fans unaware of the closed passageway. Reports of a crowd stampeded after burning paper was thrown onto terraces. Fans head towards a closed exit and are crushed against the doors.

• 1971 (Jan 2nd) Glasgow, Scotland; 66 people are killed and 140 are injured when barriers in Ibrox Stadium collapse near the end of a match between Celtic and Rangers and fans are crushed. The incident occurs when fans leaving the stadium are met by a group trying to return after hearing that Rangers had scored an equalizer. From a BBC website: 1971: Disaster at Ibrox. Sixty-six football fans died after a match between Celtic and Rangers at Ibrox Park. Initial reports suggested the tragedy had been caused by supporters rushing back up the stairs, after a late Rangers' goal, colliding with people leaving the stadium. But a public inquiry discounted this theory and said the deaths were the result of the crush of fans pouring down stairway 13. The disaster remains the worst in the history of Scottish football. Do you remember the Ibrox disaster? Were you there? Your memories so far. This is the first time I have put in print my experience as a 16-year-old.
  I was with a group of friends and can't even recall Celtic scoring but both I and [my friend] Shug Armstrong decided to go to the rear of the terrace to make a quick exit after the final whistle. I can recall watching the final minutes on my tiptoes at the back of the terrace near exit 13 when Rangers scored the equaliser, and we rejoiced. The kick-off was taken and the referee blew the final whistle. I remember moans and shouts for the people behind to stop pushing, I remember people tumbling over the top of us to where ever. William Orr, Scotland. We sped to the exit and the usual crush developed which was nothing unusual. As we went down the stairs what was apparent was that as we went down our angle slowly progressed towards the horizontal and I was quickly aware that we were falling. Instinctively I raised myself up and was trapped from my waist down. Shug was directly in front of me so I tried to relieve the pressure on him by pushing back as best I could. I remember moans and shouts for the people behind to stop pushing, I remember people tumbling over the top of us to where ever. I remember the giant railway sleepers that were at the side of the staircase collapsing. After what seemed an eternity the people behind us were freed and we were able to get back to our feet. I was numb in my legs which lasted a couple of weeks but had no other ill effect. Shug went to hospital for observation but was released. I remember shoes being strewn every where at the top of the staircase and I thought that these would be reclaimed by their owners. I walked down the terrace and saw people lying on the pitch and I assumed that they were drunk, but in fact most would be dead. I can remember the eerie misty silence that was broken by the ambulance sirens and I walked through the tunnel and out the front door of Ibrox. I walked into Glasgow City centre and made my way home to the east end of Glasgow where my mother was frantic with worry. My oldest brother lost his best friend John Buchanan who sadly died in the crush. I had been in many crowds before this day and I firmly believe that all that happened was that someone fell at the bottom to middle of the stairs and a domino effect followed. William Orr, Scotland Almost all memory of the game escapes me now, apart from the end, but what happened on Stairway 13 will haunt me for the rest of my days. It was well after the final whistle when my five mates and I made our way towards the Stairway 13 exit. As was usual at that time there was crushing at the top of the stairs, especially at big games. As I started down I was lifted off my feet by the press of the crown, again not unusual, but about a quarter of the way down I began slowly falling forward. The crush began to be unbearable until about half way down the crowd stopped moving but the pressure continued. I was trapped, being crushed and lying almost horizontally, I managed to somehow free my upper chest and just managed to breath. I could not speak, was barely breathing, cold and in shock. William Mason, Scotland. Around me I could hear shouting and cries but as time went on, (I was trapped for at least 45 minutes), these decreased until it was almost silent. I just wanted to sleep, (asphyxiation, lack of oxygen), but the man nearest to me slapped my face to try and keep me alert. I stayed conscious throughout until rescued by the police and was carried and laid out on the pitch. This would be about 6pm on January 2, dark sky (the floodlights were on) and very cold. I was then carried into the stadium and this was the worst part. I could not speak, was barely breathing, cold and in shock. I was left in a dressing room where all around me were stretchers with bodies, no sounds and some already covered up. That sent me over the edge and I started crying. It was then a nurse spotted the tears and I was quickly removed from the stadium to the Victoria Infirmary along with another badly injured man. There I was treated for broken ankle and crush injuries. I didn't go back to Ibrox or any football match for 17 years but have since returned and am now, proudly, an Ibrox season ticket holder. I was 18 in 1971 and for the past almost 30 years have met people that were at the game but have never met or talked to any of the 145 others who were injured. This is the first time I have written my account and although the physical injuries healed, I know the mental pain is still there for many survivors and victim's families. William Mason, Scotland. I was at the game. I stayed until the final whistle whereupon I made my way to the top of the terracing, and left the ground by Stairway 13. I made my way by public transport to my home in the west end of Glasgow completely unaware of the tragedy that befallen my fellow Rangers supporters. I have never really been able to reconcile how close I was to being involved and yet remaining without realisation of what had occurred until much later. The initial version of events of course was exasperating to me. As you rightly point out, this was later discredited. As a footnote, I may add that only a handful of years ago I took part in an official tour of the Stadium. It saddens me to report that the guide reported the erroneous version of events, blaming the incident on supporters rushing back up stairway 13 after hearing Stein's equalising goal being scored. Ian Cameron, UK. I recall the day only too well. I was an 11-year-old Celtic fan living a few miles away and waiting with some pals at the newsagent's door. Normally it was very exiting to wait for the evening edition of the paper to be delivered, to get the headline, but that day, the headline was not about the result. Soon after wave after wave of rangers' fans recalled how they felt there had been an accident. Initially the forecast was of eleven dead, the toll mounted as the night wore on. It was a tragic day and I and thousands of others had been on the steps before, luckily on a different day. With sectarianism slowly creeping out of football we should remember those fallen and for their sake hope both Celtic and Rangers recover past glories and move on to new highs. It is what they went to see thirty years ago. Stephen McKenna, UK. I was living in San Diego, California, and read about it in a Glasgow newspaper that was sent to me by my father-in-law. I read all the dead peoples' names and noticed a man, John Gardener, whom I had played football with in Clydebank. John was our goalkeeper, and one of the nicest guys you could ever meet. I had left Clydebank in 1959, and I believe Johnny was a coach of a youth team at the time of his death, in Clydebank. I am a Celtic fan, and Johnny was a Rangers' fan, I still have very good memories of Johnny - God rest his soul! Hubert Carey, US.

• 1971 (March 4) Salvador, Brazil. A fight and a wild rush broke out in the grandstands, killing four and injuring 1,500.
• 1974 (Feb. 17) Cairo, Egypt. Crowds attempting to enter a club game broke down barriers and 49 people were trampled to death.
• 1975 (March 12). USSR, Moskow, Sokolniki stadium: after a soccer game between a Canadian and a USSR youth team 20 people were crushed to death in a dark stairway.
• 1976 (Oct 31) Yaounde, Cameroon. After a penalty kick was awarded to Cameroon in a World Cup qualifying match vs. the Congo, the Congolese goalie attacked the Gambian referee. A fight broke out and the president of Cameroon, watching the game at home on television, sent in paratroopers by helicopter. Two bystanders died.
• 1976 (Dec. 6) Port-au-Prince, Haiti; At a World Cup qualifier between Haiti and Cuba, the visitors scored and a Haitian fan set off a firecracker. Fans thought it was gunfire and panicked, knocking down a soldier, whose gun went off and killed a small boy and girl in the crowd. Further panic caused two people to be trampled to death, and one man died jumping over a wall. The soldier committed suicide.

• 1979 24 died and 27 injured in a stampede as fans stampede during a light failure. Nigeria

• 1981 (Feb 8) Piraeus, Greece. 24 died in a stampede as fans rush to leave ground, 54 injured.

• 1981 38 injured during a crowd surge at Hillsborough Stadium. Sheffield, Great Britain.

• 1982 (Oct. 20) Moscow; 340 are reportedly killed at a European Cup match between Soviet club Spartak Moscow and Haarlem of the Netherlands. Police are blamed for pushing fans down a narrow, icy staircase before the end of the match. When a late goal is scored, exiting fans try to re-enter the stadium and create a "human mincer." Moscow officials dispute the claims made in the publication of the Soviet Sports Committee, saying only 61 died and police did not push fans. Luzhniki Stadium: Up to 340 people are crushed to death when fans leaving the stadium try to re-enter the stands after a last-minute goal in a UEFA Cup tie between Moscow Spartak and Dutch side Haarlem, according to Sovietsky Sport. The government newspaper Izvestia puts the death toll at 66.

• 1982 Cali, Columbia. 24 died and 250 injured in a stampede, caused when drunken fans provoke a stampede.

• 1985 Mexico City. 10 die and 29 injured trying to force their way into a stadium.

• 1985 (May 11) Bradford, England; 56 people die when a cigarette stub ignites a stadium's wooden terrace section and fire engulfs the structure.
• 1985 (May 29) Brussels, Belgium; 39 people are killed at the European Champions Cup Final at Heysel Stadium when riots beak out and a wall separating rival fans of England's Liverpool and Italy's Juventus of Turin collapses.
• 1987 (March 10) Tripoli, Libya; 20 people are killed when panic-stricken fans flee knife-wielding ruffians and trigger the collapse of a wall. (This report conflicted with those from the Libyan state news agency JANA, which said two people were killed and 16 were hospitalized.)
• 1988 (March 12) Katmandu, Nepal. At least 93 people are killed and more than 100 injured when fans fleeing a hailstorm stampede into locked stadium exits.
• 1989 (April 15) Hillsborough, Sheffield, England. 96 people are crushed to death (1 died in hospital with crush related injuries) at an English FA Cup semi-final game between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest, when police open gates to alleviate crowding outside Hillsborough Stadium. The resulting rush of people onto the already filled terrace sections traps fans against riot control fences ringing the field. 400 injured.

1990 Crowd Disasters

• 1990 (July) Mogadishu, Somalia, 7 killed and 18 injured after President Mohammed Siad Barre's bodyguards opened fire to quell a disturbance.
• 1990 (March 25th) USA, New York City, Bronx, illegal Happy Land Social Club, 87 people died

• 1990 Mina Valley, Saudi Arabia. 1,426 die in accident at the Moslem pilgrims converging on Al-Mu'aysam Tunnel. The pilgrims, 680 of whom were later identified as Indonesian and some 600 as Turkish, died of suffocation or were trampled to death in a frantic attempt to escape, as an estimated 50,000 worshippers converged simultaneously on the 500-metre long al- Mu'aysam tunnel to the pilgrim tent city of Mina towards Jamarat Bridge.

1991 Crowd Disasters

• 1991 (Jan. 13) Orkney, South Africa; at least 40 people are killed, most of them trampled or crushed along riot-control fences that surround the field, when fans panic and try to escape brawls that break out in the grandstand. 40 killed and 50 injured in South Africa's worst sports disaster. A refereeing decision triggered violence and a stampede during a pre-season 'friendly' between arch rivals Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates.

• 1991 (July), Nairobi, Kenya. 1 fan killed and 24 injured in a stampede during an African Nations Cup qualifier between Kenya and Mozambique.

1992 Crowd Disasters

• 1992 (May 5) Bastia, Corsica; 17 people are killed and 1,900 injured when a temporary grandstand, erected to increase the capacity of the stadium from 8,500 to 18,000, collapses before a French Cup semi-final match between four-time defending league champion Olympique Marseille and second-division Bastia.

• 1992 (July 19) Rio de Janerio. 50 injured falling from upper tier of Maracana Stadium when part of the fence gave way when 150,000 fans await the Brazilian championship final. 50 injured after falling five metres from the upper tier at the Maracana Stadium when part of the fencing gave way before a National Championship match between Flamengo and Botafogo.

• 1992 (April 29 - May 2) Los Angles Riots: civil disturbance began a few hours after the acquittal of four police officers in the Rodney King trial at the intersection of Normandie and Florence in South Los Angeles; In the four days of riots that followed 51 people were killed, 2,383 persons were injured needing hospital treatment, over 1,000 buildings became burned and hundreds more damaged over a 105 square mile area. Eventually over 22,000 law enforcement, California National Guard, and federal military personnel were called in to restore order.

1993 Crowd Disasters

• 1993 (Jan 1st) Lan Kwai Fong, Hong Kong.  21 died in crowd crush incident. The Lan Kwai Fong disaster that took place in Hong Kong in the early hours of 1 January 1993. It was a crush crowd incident, catching thousands of party-goers off-guard and resulted in 21 persons dying. The location (narrow streets and a sloped gradient), poor police planning and bad weather all played their part in this disaster. The crowd. In January 1993 at Lan Kwai Fong, not far from the Happy Valley Racecourse a disaster occurred. More than 20 people died in a crowd crush on a busy street. From Mr. Justice Bokary’s Interim Report into that disaster. A number of persons, more or less in a row and more or less at the same time, lost or were deprived of their footing and fell. Because the press from behind was overwhelming, more and more people started falling. People piled upon those who had gone down before them. The pile grew until it reached such a height that the people immediately behind it were propped up by it and pinned against it by the press of people behind and upslope of them. Thus came about what some witnesses have called a "human wall". Tragically, men, women and children had the breath of life crushed out of them. 20 persons died very quickly, one more died in hospital some days later.

1994 Crowd Disasters

• 1994 Saudi Arabia. 266 died 98 injured in a progressive crowd collapse during "stoning the Devil" ritual at the Jamarat Bridge.  In ALL incidents at Jamarat the crushing is a progressive crowd collapse caused by the sheer numbers of pilgrims. You have to study, in depth, these types of events to realise that 2,500,000 million pilgrims passing through a complex space the Saudi authorities are doing a phenomenal job. Compare this event to smaller events (click here for details). 

• 1994 MTV Europe - Fire in Gdansk, Poland. 7 people die through fire and crush related injuries

• 1994 (November 27th) China, Liaoning province, city of Fuxin: fire in a nightclub; 234 people died.
   

1995 Crowd Disasters

• 1995 (April 8th) Sierra Leone, Freetown: the main gate collapsed on hundreds of fans scrambling for tickets outside a packed stadium, at least 40 people were injured.

• 1995 (February 15th)Taiwan, Taichung: fire in the 3-story Weierkang Club restaurant, karaoke bar and nightclub; 64 people died

• 1995 (April 24th) China, Xinjiang region, Urumqi: fire at an illegal all-night karaoke and video centre; 51 people died.

• 1995 (December 23rd) India, Mandi Dabwali, Rajiv Marriage Palace: during a celebration a short circuit from an electric generator ignited a synthetic cloth tent; the unauthorized construction surrounded by high brick walls of the palace provided no means of evacuation and the main entrance was cut off by the flames; 441 people died, many of them children and at least 150 were injured; medical and emergency resources in the town of 50,000 were very limited or non-existent.

1996 Crowd Disasters

• 1996 (June 16) Lusaka, Zambia. Nine soccer fans were crushed to death and 78 others injured during a stampede following Zambia's victory over Sudan in a World Cup qualifying game.
• 1996 (July 14) Tripoli, Libya; A riot at a soccer match involving a team controlled by a son of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi killed or injured up to 50 people. No exact figures were reported in the Libyan-controlled press.
• 1996 (Oct. 16) Guatemala City. At least 83 people died and about 180 others were injured during a stampede at a stadium before a World Cup qualifying match between Guatemala and Costa Rica.
• 1996 (March 19th) Philippines, Quezon City, Night Club fire, more than 150 people died

1997 Crowd Disasters

• 1997 Jamarat Bridge Saudi Arabia. 22 dead, 43 injured, Muslim pilgrims crushed.  In ALL incidents at Jamarat the crushing is a progressive crowd collapse caused by the sheer numbers of pilgrims. You have to study, in depth, these types of events to realise that 2,500,000 million pilgrims passing through a complex space the Saudi authorities are doing a phenomenal job. Compare this event to smaller events (click here for details). 

1998 Crowd Disasters

• 1998 Gothenburg (Sweden). The fire in a discotheque in Gothenburg, 63 young people died. On Thursday 29 November 1998, at about 11.40 pm, a serious fire broke out in a discotheque in Hisingen, Gothenburg. The fire started in the emergency exit stairwell at the rear (south end) of the building. The fire had probably been going for a good while before anyone smelt smoke. When the door to the stairwell was opened, unburned fire-gases ignited and the fire spread quickly through the dance hall. Sixty-three youngsters aged between 12 and 20 died and more than 200 were injured. The hall was approximately 10 x 36 metres and was situated on the first floor of an old industrial building. It had two exits, the main door situated at the northern short end of the building and the previously mentioned emergency exit at the southern end. The hall had been inspected and approved by the authorities to hold up to a maximum of 150 people. When the fire broke out we estimate that there were between 340 and 400 people in the hall. Panic ensued and everybody pushed towards the one remaining exit. This consisted of an outward opening fire door, with the space between the two sides of the doorframe measuring 90 centimetres. But because the door could only be opened to an angle of 90 degrees, its thickness encroached on the available space and therefore reduced the opening to 82 centimetres. There was crushing and congestion, many people fell over, and the door opening became blocked up by youngsters wedged into it. The police, fire and ambulance services were quick to arrive on scene, and attended in large numbers. Most of the dance hall was by then already in flames. Desperate youngsters jumped from windows from a height of six metres. Many of those who succeeded in getting out were seriously injured. There were still more than a hundred people left inside. With the help of external ladders about 20 people were successfully rescued through the windows. About another 40 people were rescued via the main staircase by BA equipped fire fighters. Many of the youngsters who got out of the building at an early stage helped, in a most admirable way, to take care of their injured friends. Other youngsters, however, in their frustration at what they perceived as the slow progress of the rescue work became aggressive. Actual violence was directed towards rescue personnel. Work at the incident site was initially chaotic. In the courtyard outside the disco, emergency services personnel and their vehicles were crowded together with seriously injured people and shocked survivors. But as time went on the rescue work was organised along the lines of well-practised plans and routines. A makeshift assembly point for the injured was set up in an empty car showroom. Medical personnel gave first aid, prioritised the injured, and assigned them to various hospitals. The rescue commander and police operations chief coordinated their respective control points. Support staffs were created. The passing of Information to relatives and the media got under way. Two hours after the raising of the first alarm, all the injured had been transported to various hospitals, whereas the 61 deceased remained at the scene. Two of the 213 injured youngsters died later in hospital. Apart from the fire on board the vessel Scandinavian Star, this is the worst fire disaster to have affected Sweden in modern times.

• 1998 Jamarat Bridge, Saudi Arabia. 118 Muslim pilgrims crushed.  434 Injured. We have the complete details of this and other Jamarat related incidents and the press like to report "stampede" or "panic". In ALL incidents the crushing is a progressive crowd collapse caused by the sheer numbers of pilgrims. You have to study, in depth, these types of events to realise that 2,500,000 million pilgrims passing through a complex space the Saudi authorities are doing a phenomenal job. Compare this event to smaller events (click here for details). 

1999 Crowd Disasters

• 1999 (Jan 11). Egypt, Alexandria: stampede after a derby between Korm and Al Ittihad, 11 people died.

• 1999 (Jan 15) Kerala, India. 51 Hindus killed and 100 injured in a stampede after part of a shrine collapsed. Over 1.5 million present at ceremony.

• 1999 (May 31) Minsk, Belarus. 53 dead, 150 injured, 78 hospitalized when a crowd of 2,500 rushed to get out of the rain at the railway station. From The Daily Telegraph, June 1, 1999. An unprecedented tragedy happened on May 30 in the centre of the Belarusian capital. Over 50 people died and some 300 were wounded in a crush at the entrance to the underground station...The tragedy was caused by heavy rain that started at about 8 p.m....A few thousand Minsk residents, mostly young people, had gathered ...The first thunders and rain drops made people rush to find shelter in the underground crossing...Somebody fell down on the concrete floor and the first blood was shed. People were slipping over and trampling those lying on the floor...People were falling at the feet of the crowd. Over two thousand people poured into the 10-metre wide underground crossing thus creating a dense moving jam...there were people literally smeared against the walls, pressed into the floor, ...Meanwhile, screams of those who were unable to escape on their own, kept echoing from this hellish meat grinder..."We are soccer fans, so we know what to do in a crowd – cover your head with hands and make your way to the exit."..."People kept arriving until there was almost no space and then the whole mess started. There was no escape. The people surging in from behind just left the others lying and walked over them," one of the survivors told Russian television.."About 300 people were lying here, one layer on top of another," a policeman said "We were carrying out the top layer of people and they were still alive. Those in the bottom layer were either dead or injured." Two policemen were caught in the crush and also died as they tried to rescue those who had fallen...More than 150 people were taken to 10 hospitals in Minsk as doctors battled through the night to save the lives of the victims in the tragedy. In his speech president Lukashenko said "There is nobody to blame, there is no one to make a claim to, it happened because it happened, even if there was anybody responsible it was the rain that caused the disaster."

• 1999 (October 30th) South Korea, Inchon (30 miles west of Seoul), shopping complex: Fire started in the underground floor of a four story-building that housed shops, karaoke and billiard rooms. Most victims were found on the second and third floors. Local EMS and hospitals were overwhelmed with the amount of casualties.71 people were injured and at least 54 people died, many of them teen-agers.

It only takes one or two people to trip in a high density, moving crowd and the consequences are disastrous. At Belarus the combination of factors should have been countered by an appropriate design. The combination of a large crowd flow, steep stairs, a narrow enclosed space is, without question, unsafe. The design was to blame.

2000 Crowd Disasters

• 2000 (April 23) Monrovia, Liberia. At least three reported dead and others injured as thousands of fans forced their way into an overcrowded stadium for a World Cup qualifier between Liberia and Chad.

• 2000 (March 25) Durban, South Africa. Three teenage boys threw a teargas canister into a packed crowd of about 600 youngsters celebrating the end of a school term. Panic caused a rush to escape. However, only one entrance, overcrowding and other building and fire violations at the club blocked the efforts of many to reach safety. Thirteen students were killed and about 150 injured. DURBAN, South Africa (AP) - A dance hall crowded with celebrating students erupted into chaos Friday when someone threw a tear gas canister into the room, killing 13 youths and injuring 44. About 600 students were at an afternoon party at the Throb Nightclub in suburban Durbin when tear gas suddenly filled the room, causing students to rush out in panic, said fire department spokesman Jay Kanniappen. Authorities have not released details on how the 13 died. KwaZulu-Natal police spokesman Bala Naidoo said a brick wall collapsed during the chaos. Police suspect that one of the children was responsible for releasing the tear gas, he said. Kevin Govender, 19, is a regular at the club and was there Friday. "About three to four songs had been played when suddenly people started screaming, pushing and running towards the doorway. I didn't know what was happening but found that I couldn't breathe," he said. "I was forced to join the scramble to get out of the club as fast as I could." He fell and was trampled upon but managed to get up and escaped uninjured. His clothes were torn, and he lost a shoe. Anderson Marimuthu, 18, said he fears a friend died in the chaos. "I had just reached the safety of the exit, and as I turned to look back, I saw this wall hurtling downwards on the people below," he said. The injured suffered mainly abrasions, respiratory problems and head injuries. Several were seriously injured. RK Khan hospital superintendent Dr. Prakash Subban said the injured ranged in age from 12 to 18. The club had two exits, but the young people had access to only one, said Narend Singh, provincial minister for agriculture and environmental affairs. However, the club's owner, Rajan Naidoo, said the club had four exits, and that all were open. "I think the children panicked and headed for the main entrance where they initially came in," he said. Naidoo said he offered to help pay for the funerals of the victims. The youngest person to die was 11, and Singh called for an investigation into why children as young as that were at the club. Naidoo said it was matinee disco and that the general policy was to serve alcohol only to those 18 and older. Community volunteers set up an emergency center with trauma counselors to help parents. By Friday evening, 300 people had lined up at a police station to find out whether their children were among the victims. Outside the club, a man with a megaphone urged a crowd of about 100 angry people to burn down the club and the owner's car. Police were at the scene, and the South African National Defense Force were called in for assistance. The club is located in Chatsworth, a Durban suburb with a largely Indian population of 600,000. Durban, South Africa's third-largest city, lies on the Indian Ocean coast, 348 miles southeast of Johannesburg.

• 2000 (March 29th) China, Henan province, city of Jiaozuo: fire in an adult cinema; at least 74 people died.

• 2000 (July 8) Harare, Zimbabwe. Twelve people die after a stampede at World Cup qualifier between South Africa and Zimbabwe. On 8 July there was an international soccer match between Zimbabwe and South Africa at the National Sports Stadium in Harare. The stadium was filled to capacity with spectators. At the beginning of the match some people in the stadium chanted MDC slogans and flashed MDC signs. Towards the end of the match some spectators started to throw cans and mostly plastic bottles onto the pitch after the South Africans had scored their second goal. The police responded by firing into the crowded stands a large number of tear gas canisters. Panic ensued and people tried to run towards the exits to get away from the noxious fumes. Tear gas canisters were fired towards some of the exits as people were trying to get out of the stadium. Thirteen people died as a result of being trampled during the stampede of people. Among those killed in the stampede were four children, the youngest age 5. The following is a statement taken by the Human Rights Legal Unit from one of the victims, Mr Cashmore Gachira: I was with five other people, all family members and friends, at the stadium. I was in Bay 2. After South Africa scored its second goal, I observed some supporters moving out of the stadium. Some other disgruntled fans were throwing empty plastic bottles into the stadium, but not as far as the pitch. I was seated about 50m from the police, and I observed the following incident. About three police officers who were in front of me indiscriminately fired teargas canisters in the general direction of where I was seated. I started running towards the exit gate. My brother was in front of me, but in the pandemonium I lost sight of him. After the second batch of steps, I observed that people were running back from the exit gates. These people were forcing their way into the stadium against the flow of the crowds. I got the impression that either the exit gates were locked, or the people were being tear gassed from outside the exit. At this stage somebody fired water from a firehose. I collapsed. When I regained consciousness, I noticed that my brother’s 10-year-old son, Tonderai Jeke Gachira, was lying dead about 4 to 6 metres from where I was. My young brother came to where I was lying and told me that my other brother, Hondo, was also dead. It later turned out that he was not dead, however, but had merely collapsed. He regained consciousness in the Parirenyatwa Hospital. Police Might Be Charged in Zimbabwe. Associated Press report. July 19, 2000. At least five police officers might face criminal charges in the deaths of 13 fans killed in a stampede after police fired tear gas during a World Cup qualifying game. Zimbabwe's police chief said Wednesday the officers might be charged with involuntary manslaughter stemming from the July 8 soccer game in the capital between Zimbabwe and South Africa. Some police were "derelict" when they fired tear gas in the stands at bottle-throwing fans, Police Chief Augustine Chihuri said in announcing preliminary findings of a police inquiry. "Truly, there was too much gas," he said. "Perhaps it should not have been applied." Among the 50,000 fans were some 300 opposition agitators. The police chief said they were deliberately placed in one grandstand to disrupt the game, adding police had evidence they were transported to the stadium. The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change has repeatedly denied the accusations. Witnesses said many fans gave the MDC's open-hand salute and held red cards. Red cards are a soccer symbol the opposition used during the campaign for last month's parliamentary elections to signify that Mugabe's party should be removed. The national anthem was ``interrupted by some hooligans,'' the inquiry reported. Witnesses at the stadium said political jibes were also directed against Mugabe's nephew Leo, head of the Zimbabwe Football Association. Chihuri, an appointee of President Robert Mugabe, denied that a contingent of 400 police were so angered by the opposition slogans that they overreacted. The opposition poses the biggest challenge to Mugabe's hold on power since he led the nation to independence in 1980. Chihuri said two people were arrested for throwing objects on the field and other suspects from among the group of agitators were being sought. They would face charges of public violence and possible involuntary manslaughter charges. The Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum has placed an advertisement in the press indicating that it is prepared to pursue legal actions for compensation on behalf of victims and relatives of victims. It is intended to bring such claims together in the form of a class action.

• 2000 (July) Roskilde Festival, Denmark. 26 people injured and 9 died at a concert (Pearl Jam) when crowds slip and fall in mud at front of stage.

• 2000 (October 20th) Mexico, Mexico City, Lobohombo nightclub: A blaze at 5 a.m. in one the city's most popular night clubs killed at least 20 people. 27 others suffered mostly critical injuries. Survivors said they were blocked from leaving the burning building by disco personnel who insisted they pay their bills first. The blaze killed 20, and injured two dozen more. Patrons panicked when smoke began filling the disco, and began scrambling to escape out the club's only exit. The 4,700 square feet club had a capacity for more than 1,000 people, but the building had no emergency exits.

• 2000 (Dec) Săo Januário stadium, Brazil. Approximately 200 were hurt in a crowd crush incident in the stands of the Săo Januário stadium during a Brazilian soccer championship match. According to reports, the stadium was visibly oversold, but organizers did not notify safety officials. At one point in the frenzied match, a fight started at the top of one portion of the stadium stands. A weapon was brandished and people near the fight stampeded causing a crowd surge and crush at the bottom of the pitch. Many fans were trapped by security fencing and could not escape.

• 2000 (December 25th) China, Central Henan province, City of Luoyang: the fire in a Dance Hall in the multi-story Dongdu commercial building started at 9:30 p.m. and trapped construction workers on the second and third floor and more than 200 people in a dance hall on the fourth floor; the fire was extinguished three hours later, but in the meantime at least 309 people died and dozens became injured.

• 2000, April Portugal, Lisbon, Luanda nightclub: release of pepper gas and power cut caused a panicked stampede by at least 500 people, 7 persons died, 60 were injured.
   

2001 Crowd Disasters

• 2001 (January 1st) Netherlands, near Amsterdam, town of Volendam: Fire in a Dance Hall; ten people are dead and about 130 injured after fire swept through a cafe packed with teenagers. Many of the injured were hurt as they trampled each other, smashed windows and leapt from the third-floor premises to escape flames and smoke. Several other youngsters suffered severe burns or smoke inhalations, and about 20 of these victims had to be taken to special burn units in Belgium and Germany. The fire started shortly after midnight as about 700 people were heralding the new year at the bar/cafe complex "Het Hemeltje" (Little Heaven) inside a row of old wooden houses in Volendam, a picturesque fishing village with 18,000 residents about 20 kilometres (13 miles) northeast of Amsterdam. The cause of the blaze is still unknown; the possibilities of fireworks smuggled into the building or a Christmas lights short-circuit that ignited pine branches are under investigation. According to press reports Voldendam's mayor has confirmed that only one of the three emergency exits was accessible.

• 2001 March -  Jamarat Bridge, Saudi Arabia. 35 dead 179 injured - Stoning of the Devil

• 2001 April 11 - Ellis Park South Africa. At least 43 people were killed at a football match between South Africa's two biggest teams. The stampede began as a crowd tried to get into Ellis Park stadium in Johannesburg to watch the match between Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates.

• 2001 April 29 - Lubumbashi, Congo. Another stampede killed eight people.

• 2001 (March) 4 young girls crushed to death during signing session of British band (A1) during mall promotion - Jakarta, India.

• 2001 (April) Scores Killed In Pakistani Crowd Crush. At least 36 Moslem pilgrims in Pakistan died when they were crushed to death in a crowd of approximately 100,000 people. The worshipers were waiting Saturday night to partake in an annual religious ceremony at a shrine in Pak Patten, about 100 miles from Lahore. Approximately 150 people were also treated for crowd crush injuries at the scene or in hospitals. A door opening delay that kept pilgrims waiting for three hours; a narrow street that funnelled the worshipers into the shrine and poor crowd management were reasons given for the disaster. When the main door finally opened, worshipers surged forward. Many in the crowd were crushed or trampled, according to reports.

• 2001 (April) The initial blame for a devastating crowd crush at a football match at the Ellis Park stadium in Johannesburg, South Africa, is being placed on overselling, overcrowding and poor crowd management, according to local news media accounts. The latest information from Johannesburg is that at least 47 people have died today, including women and at least one 12-year-old child. Innumerable people have been injured, likely in the hundreds. The stadium has a legal capacity of 68,000 people, but on site estimates put the spectator count at 120,000 for the popular rivalry between the Kaizer Chiefs and the Orlando Pirates. Tragedy was triggered when people with tickets tried to push their way into the already packed stadium, trapping and crushing others in the process, some along a barbed wire security fence.

• 2001 May 6 - Iran. Several soccer fans were killed and hundreds others injured Sunday when part of the roof of a stadium grandstand caved in during a game in northeastern Iran. Two people died and a third was in critical condition at a local hospital, Asghar Samarbakhsh, deputy sports director for Mazandaran province, said. The number of dead was in dispute.
• 2001 May 6 - Ivory Coast. Fighting broke out among fans at a match in Ivory Coast, killing one person and injuring 39.
• 2001 May 9 - Ghana, West Africa. A stampede at a packed soccer match between two of Ghana's leading teams killed at least 100 people Wednesday night, hospital officials said. Accra's Hearts of Oak was leading Assante Kotoko 2-1 with five minutes left in the game when Assante supporters began throwing bottles and chairs onto the field, witnesses said. Police then fired tear gas, creating panic in the stands. Charlayne Hunter-Gault is CNN's Johannesburg bureau chief and correspondent. Q: What is known so far about the cause of this incident in which 126 people were killed in a stampede at the end of a soccer match in Ghana? Hunter-Gault: There isn't anything definitive out so far because the government announced that there would be a commission of inquiry, but one of the interesting things about this soccer tragedy is how it compares with other ones, particularly in Africa in the past year. In fact, the security and or the police used tear gas to attempt to disperse the crowd. While there was already a lot of activity, including fans on the losing side clashing with fans on the winning side and throwing seats on to the pitch in the stadium, many seem to think that the people's panic was caused as a result of the tear gas. In fact, there's one soccer expert, a commentator here in South Africa who has called for use of tear gas to be banned at these events, even in the event of some unruliness because that just seems to add insult to injury and people panicking. Many of those in Ghana as here in South Africa were suffocated or crushed under foot in the ensuing rush as people were attempting to escape both the trouble and the tear gas. In Ghana the gates were locked shut to this 40,000 seat capacity stadium, so that also made it quite difficult for people to get out of the way of the stampede. Q: Are there certain stadium conditions that contributed to so many injuries and deaths? Hunter-Gault: At least one commentator and highly respected journalist, a Ghanayan, who was on the scene did say that the commission of inquiry ought to look into the architecture of the sports stadium. He said that there were too many metal barricades, too many wires, too many barriers for people to get out and also, as I said, the gates at the entrance were in fact locked. I think that will be part of the inquiry. Here in South Africa's tragedy, which happened in April in which 43 people were killed and 155 injured, there was a huge scaffolding outside one of the gates. That might have been a factor in people's inability to get out and contributed to the crush because people didn't have anywhere to go or have any room to maneuver under those circumstances. That's a real possibility, that the architecture of the stadium, as well as the impediments to egress could easily be factors to these tragedies. In most of these situations the stadiums are filled to capacity. Soccer is a passion with people in Africa and in Ghana the seats were apparently all taken. I wasn't there, but commentators say that it was packed to capacity if not overcapacity. People say (and this was actually testimony recently, interviews, by people who were at the South African stadium tragedy in April) that what often happens is that people walk up to the stadium and don't have tickets and the tickets are sold out, but if you pass a little money to a guard, you can get in. So there is an overcrowding that exacerbates the other problems that evolve. Q: How will this incident and others recently affect Africa's chances of hosting the 2010 World Cup? Hunter-Gault: Soccer officials here seem to think that it shouldn't affect their chances because it is, after all, nine years away. Most people seem to think that if something dramatic isn't done to right some of the problems in some of these stadiums, and if these kinds of tragedies continue to happen, they will probably doom some of those chances. There have been soccer matches here in South Africa where there have been huge crowds of people, but they were in different venues and they've come off uneventfully, at least in terms of this kind of tragedy. So the argument could be made that under the proper circumstances and with the proper organization and management, these kinds of incidents could be avoided. One commentator was saying this morning that some people might raise a question about whether or not countries in Africa with limited resources for such construction could really afford to make the changes necessary to prevent these kinds of deaths. And this well-known soccer analyst and veteran watcher of the game was saying it wouldn't take a lot of resources to re-organize the approach to soccer matches and to establish guidelines similar to the ones adopted in Europe. For example, in South Africa, for the rugby matches, no tickets are sold at the stadium and they monitor very carefully to allow only people with tickets to come in. They have ample security. They have assigned, numbered seats. So there is a school of thought among some veteran observers of the game that just some very elementary changes in the way the thing is organized could go a long way towards limiting any kind of damage that might arise as a result of over exuberance and even unruly fans. (Reuters) 126 people die in crowd stampede - Ghana. Thousands of desperate relatives besieged a morgue in Ghana''s capital to search for victims of a soccer stampede that killed at least 126 people in Africa''s worst football tragedy. Authorities promised an inquiry into the disaster, which spectators said was triggered by police firing teargas after fans hurled missiles at the end of Wednesday's game between Ghana''s two leading teams, arch-rivals Hearts of Oak and Asante Kotoko. It was the soccer-mad continent's third deadly stadium disaster in a month.

• 2001 (July) Akashi Crowd Crush Disaster: Preliminary Analysis Points To Poor Planning And Management. 10 people were killed and over 120 were injured. Eight of the ten victims were under the age of 10-years-old. Two were in their 70s, according to the Kyodo News. The victims were part of a crowd of well over 150,000 people who were enjoying a fireworks display nearby. Among the major crowd safety flaws that lead to the crowd crush and crowd collapse disaster are, according to CMS (USA): 1) Reliance by organizers on one major egress route for tens of thousands of people. 2) Reliance on an egress route not designed for the crowd capacity that could reasonably be expected to use the exit route following the fireworks display. 3) An underestimation of the anticipated event audience size. Therefore, an under assessment of the staffing, services and demands that would be placed upon the event site. 4) A lack of emergency exits on the walkway. 5) A flawed, poorly executed or non-existent emergency plan. 6) Failure of a timely response to the initial signs of impending disaster.

• 2001 (August) Forty-five fans had to receive medical treatment after they were crushed at a concert featuring Eminem. They were crushed 20 minutes after the Detroit rapper came on stage at the Gig on the Green festival in Glasgow. The show was stopped while police and stewards helped to remove injured fans caught up in the crush. Before the rapper appeared on stage, announcements had been made by festival organisers asking people to stop surging forward. A spokesman for the ambulance service said 45 fans were treated for minor injuries. Five were taken to Glasgow Royal Infirmary and two to the city's Victoria Infirmary for observation. A police spokesman said an overhead helicopter at the concert help staff monitor the situation for the 30 minutes while the concert was halted. The spokesman praised Eminem and his band for helping to ease the situation and complying with requests from organisers to ask fans to stop moving forward. He said: "Eminem and his band did all they could to help the situation and we are grateful for his support." Susan McCarrol, 21, of Glasgow, who was at the sell-out show said: "I was near the front and it was really scary. There was this mad surge of people and they kept moving forward. "You could hear folk say 'get off' and things like that. When it got too bad we just moved out of the way and decided to leave."

• 2001 September 1st. Japan, Tokyo, Mah-Jongg Club: Nightly Fire in the 3rd. floor of building that contained numerous restaurants and red-light establishments in a busy entertainment district; the windowless structure was crowded and the stairways are described as extremely narrow; at least 44 people died, 3 were injured.

• 2001 (December 18th) Aracaju, Brazil. 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) Sofia, Bulgaria. 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 1,000 to 1,500 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. Friday, 21 December, 2001, 23:55 GMT. Seven die in Sofia disco tragedy. Most of those who died were under 15. At least seven teenagers have been killed in a stampede at a disco in the Bulgarian capital, Sofia. All those who died suffocated, according to hospital officials quoted by French news agency AFP. The melee occurred as hundreds of children skidded on an icy staircase of the discotheque. Police spokeswoman Stefka Ivanopva. Bulgarian police spokeswoman Stefka Ivanopva said the stampede occurred as teenagers tried to get into the town centre disco on Friday night. She told the Associated Press news agency that initial reports of a stairway collapsing were false. "The melee occurred as hundreds of children skidded on an icy staircase of the discotheque," she said. Security checked Interior Minister Georgi Petkanov said that one person died at the scene and the others later in hospital. Most of the victims died in hospital, Most of those who died were under 15. Speaking on state television, Mr Petkanov said that officials investigating the case did not initially believe the disco's owners to be at fault. More than 1,500 teenagers were trying to enter the Indigo disco club - a former ice rink - when the accident happened, Bulgarian state radio reported. Police said they would be checking security at all of Sofia's nightclubs. Freezing conditions Eyewitness Anton Popov, who was waiting to enter the club, told Reuters news agency that the disco was holding a Christmas party when the accident happened. "I was on the staircase when I heard screams from inside and I first thought that people were having fun," he said. Poor weather conditions over the past few days have put temperatures well below freezing. Prime Minister Simeon Saxe-Cobourg visited victims at one of the hospitals, as did outgoing President Petar Stoyanov and President-elect Georgi Parvanov. Mr Parvanov said that a national day of mourning would be held on the day of the victims' funerals. "Conditions in the disco were primitive and this incident should have been foreseen," he told AFP.

2002 Crowd Disasters

• 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.

• 2002 (Jan 18th) Dozens of people are feared dead after a river of molten rock poured from a volcano in the Democratic Republic of Congo. United Nations officials estimate that 45 people have died in the 24 hours since red-hot lava began pouring out of Mount Nyiragongo down through the eastern town of Goma and on into Lake Kivu, which straddles the Rwandan border. "This is going to be a human catastrophe," said an official from a contingent of UN ceasefire observers deployed in the eastern Congolese city of more than half a million. "We have to find them shelter, put them up in camps. There's no electricity, no running water." UN officials estimate that up to 300,000 people were driven from their homes as molten lava swept through Goma.

• 2002 (Feb 20th) Egyptian officials are investigating the circumstances that led to one of the worst rail disasters in the country's history. At least 350 people were killed when a train from Cairo to Luxor caught fire.

• 2002 (July 11th) TOKYO, Japan -- Thousands of people have been asked to evacuate their homes as tropical storm Chataan swirls its way north up the eastern coast of Japan. Even as Chataan churned along Japan's Pacific coast, a new and stronger storm, Typhoon Halong, gathered speed southwest of Guam, packing winds of around 126 kilometers per hour. In Japan, heavy rains and flooding triggered by Chataan prompted calls for more than 100,000 people to evacuate areas north of Tokyo on Thursday, according to wire reports. Officials in Kesennuma, a low-lying coastal city, recommended that some 60,000 people evacuate as a precautionary measure.

• 2002 (July 27th) At least 78 people have been killed and more than 115 injured in western Ukraine, when a military aircraft crashed into a crowd of spectators at an air show. Thousands of people watched in horror as the Russian-made Sukhoi Su-27 jet plummeted from the sky, exploding into flames amongst the crowded stands, in what has become the world's worst air show disaster.

• 2002 (October 30th) Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City. fire in a Saigon International Trade Center Restaurant; 61 guests of a wedding reception died.

• 2002 (Sept 24th) Twenty-one children were killed, most suffocated under a pile of bodies, and 47 hurt when a guardrail gave way in a dark stairwell at a Chinese school during a power blackout, hospital officials said on Tuesday. Police said they had detained seven people, including school officials and a local construction company boss, after the collapse. BEIJING. China.

• 2002 (December 1st) Venezuela, Caracas: La Goajira nightclub fire; 47 people died.

2003 Crowd Disasters

• 2003 (Feb 18th) Chicago (USA) At least 21 people have been killed and several others critically injured in a scramble to flee a crowded Chicago nightclub after someone released pepper spray or mace. People were reportedly trampled in a rush for the door at the two storey Epitome Night Club. There were more than 1,500 people in the venue when someone released the spray into the air around 2am. Police officer, Ozzie Rodriguez, said: "There was some kind of congestion from within the establishment. People were heading for the door," Medical teams from local hospitals are at the site, along with several ambulances and paramedics.

• 2003 (Feb 19th) Two days after Tuesday's arson attack, 387 people were still listed as missing. More than 120 died. DAEGU, South Korea. Investigations Thursday focused on the possibility that human error by train operators may have more than doubled the death toll. Operators allowed the second train, where more than 70 victims apparently perished, to pull into the blazing underground station even though they knew an earlier train was on fire at the platform, police announced Thursday, citing radio transcripts between the engineer and rail controllers. Officials also hesitated to evacuate the passengers, wasting minutes that could have saved lives, police said. As the train approached the blaze, the driver was waved on by a controller who advised only: ``When you enter the Joongang Station, drive carefully. There is a fire.'' Authorities on Thursday said they had identified only 46 of the dead, and 388 people were still unaccounted for. Officials said the number of missing was inflated by double-reporting and other clerical glitches. The arson suspect, Kim Dae-han, 56, has a history of mental illness and was trying to commit suicide, police said. Kim told police ``he decided to die with others in a crowded place, rather than die by himself,'' authorities said. The suspect, who was hospitalized with light burns, had once threatened to burn a hospital where he received what he considered was unsatisfactory treatment, local media reported. Subway passengers said he used a cigarette lighter to set fire to a container filled with gasoline or another flammable liquid. Officials said 146 people were injured in the attack, 34 of them seriously. The fire quickly spread through the six-car train. The second train arrived at the station minutes later and was also engulfed in flames. Critics said Tuesday's tragedy revealed problems with the nation's emergency response system and a potential vulnerability to terrorism. Had the train been equipped with fire-resistant seats and floor tiles, many said, it probably would not have burst into flames. And an apparent lack of emergency lighting left victims groping in the dark after the lights went out. Roh said Thursday he would instruct officials to inspect the South Korean subway system's safety features and upgrade them if necessary ``so such an incident never takes place again.'' The nationwide network carries 6.5 million passengers daily, and subway officials promised to install emergency lighting, increase the number of exit signs, make car interiors flame-resistant and heighten security.

• 2003 (Feb 21st) At least 100 people died after a massive fire broke out late today during a rock concert at a club in the eastern US state of Rhode Island, the state's governor said. The governor estimated the number of people inside the small club at around 350 and said the speed with which the fire spread was a major factor behind the heavy death toll. "If you were not out of that building in 30 seconds you didn't have a prayer," he said, adding that the main priority now was to identify the remains of those who died. An investigation is underway into how the fire started.

• 2003 14 Muslim pilgrims crushed. Mina, Saudi Arabia. This accident was a result of pilgrims begin crushed by a bus.

• 2003 (14th May) At least 15 concertgoers were killed in a crowd crush near the front of the stage (and possibly near the entrance) at a pop concert by Koffi Olomide at Friendship Stadium in Cotonou, Benin, on Saturday. The promoter did not notify local police of the crowd management tragedy until after the concert for fear of it being cancelled, according to a report by the BBC. Authorities say there will be an investigation.

• 2003 (Aug 27th) At least 32 dead in Hindu pilgrim stampede. NASIK, India.  Stampeding pilgrims have trampled at least 32 people to death, many of them elderly women, at a Hindu festival. The tragedy happened on Wednesday as thousands of pilgrims pushed and shoved along a narrow lane to a bathing pond on the banks of the Godavari river at Nasik in Western India to cleanse their sins. "I saw many people being crushed in front of my eyes," sobbed Suman Mahashinde, barely able to speak as she waited outside a hospital for injured relatives. "My 60-year-old mother-in-law was pushed and people stamped on her. She died on the spot. It was very difficult for us to get out of the crowd carrying her." One witness said several bodies were trapped in a huge pipe routing muddy water from the fast-flowing Godavari through the Ramkund bathing pond. More than 100 people were injured. "Among the dead most of them are women. Officials are trying to retrieve the bodies from the water," police officer J.D. Tambe told Reuters, adding 26 of the dead were women. As the wailing ambulances carried off the dead and injured and rescuers scrambled to overcome a lack of stretchers, hundreds of thousands of other apparently oblivious pilgrims continued bathing at other points along the river. Millions of devotees had gathered in the holy town of Nasik and neighbouring Trimbakeshwar for one of the most auspicious days of the Kumbh Mela, or Grand Pitcher festival, which comes to the towns only once every 12 years. The tragedy at Nasik, about 200 km (125 miles) northeast of Bombay, came just two days after India's financial capital was hit by two bombs planted in taxis, killing 51 people. Some of the victims were pilgrims on their way to or from the Kumbh, stopping off for some sightseeing. Before Wednesday's deaths, pilgrims and the media had criticised organisers for poor crowd control and having inadequate facilities to cope with such an emergency. It was the worst stampede at such a festival since 50 people died in 1986 at Haridwar on the Ganges River. The precise cause of Wednesday's tragedy is unclear. Police commissioner P.T. Lahor told ZEE television it began after a sadhu, or holy man, threw some silver coins in the air as an offering and many people bent down to pick them up. But other officials were quoted as saying the stampede had started after some barricades collapsed. Nasik has hundreds of temples and bathing ghats lining the river and is revered by Hindus as the place where the god-king Ram and his wife Sita were sent to exile. Nasik is also one of four legendary places where the nectar of immortality is believed to have fallen to earth after spilling from a pitcher as gods and demons fought over it. One witness said several bodies were trapped in a huge pipe routing muddy water from the fast-flowing Godavari through the Ramkund bathing pond. More than 100 people were injured. "Among the dead most of them are women. Officials are trying to retrieve the bodies from the water," police officer J.D. Tambe told Reuters, adding 26 of the dead were women. 

2004 Crowd Disasters

• 2004 (Jan 23rd) - BOMBAY - At least 51 people died when a spark from the holy flame set fire to a makeshift palm-frond hall at a wedding ceremony in southern India, says a district official. The fire occurred in Srirangam, a famous Hindu temple town 200 miles south of Madras, the state capital. The building was 300 feet from the 10th century Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple, the main attraction in the town. Many victims may have been crushed to death as panicked guests stampeded through the hall's narrow entrance in the Hindu temple town of Srirangam, on a river island 315 km (200 miles) south of the Tamil Nadu state capital, Chennai, he said. "Hospital authorities have told me that they have received 51 bodies and I fear the toll may be higher as there are many who are seriously injured as well," the official, K. Manivasan, said. About 500 guests were at the ceremony when the fire started.

• 2004 (Jan 25th) - Miami - Several people, including a baby, have died after a fire swept through a Comfort Inn motel in South Carolina, according to a fire department official. A dispatcher at the Wade Hampton fire department said on Sunday a dozen people were injured after the blaze broke out at around 4:00 a.m. local time(9.00 a.m. British time) in Greenville, a town in the northwestern part of the state, while hotel guests slept. Survivors, bundled up in hotel blankets in the freezing rain, told local media they jumped out of second-story windows. Some tied sheets together to reach safety from higher floors of the five-story building. The cause of the fire was not known. The building did not have a sprinkler system as it was built before they became mandatory. Wade Hampton Fire Chief Gary Downey said more people might have survived if they had stayed in their rooms, put wet towels at the bottom of their doors and waited to be rescued. "The people that came out of their rooms, they didn't have much of a chance," Downey told NBC 17 television. Comfort Inn is a franchise of Choice Hotels International.

• 2004 (2nd Feb) - Mena Valley - Jamarat Bridge Saudi to revamp holy sites after 251 die MENA, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia has set up a high-level committee to restructure Islam's holiest sites after 251 Muslims were killed in a stampede during the annual haj pilgrimage. The Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported on Monday that King Fahd had issued a decree ordering formation of the Committee for the Development of Mecca and Medina, adding it would be headed by senior ministers and princes from the birthplace of Islam. The 251 victims, mainly from Indonesia, Pakistan and other Asian nations, were trampled to death at the climax of the haj during a devil-stoning ritual that has in the past witnessed similar disasters. The tragedy occurred after some people collapsed as a two-million strong crowd surged towards the Jamarat Bridge in Mena to throw stones at pillars representing the devil. The crush occurred on the first day of the Eid al-Adha, a Muslim feast to commemorate Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son Ismail at God's command. SPA said the committee would draft a new layout for Mena and other holy sites. It would be funded and supported by all the kingdom's ministries. Authorities said they had tried to avert stampedes this year by urging people to perform the ritual at different times. "There were more than 400 metres of people pushing in the same direction (which) resulted in the collapse of those next to the stoning area and those behind. That led to panic," Pilgrimage Affairs and Endowments Minister Iyad bin Amin Madani told reporters after the incident.

• 2004 (Feb 5th) - Beijing -  festival disaster kills 37 BEIJING (Reuters) - At least 37 people have been killed and 15 injured at a lantern festival in a north suburb of the Chinese capital, doctors say. "As far as I know, 37 people were killed and 15 were injured," a doctor at Miyun County Hospital told Reuters on Thursday. The Chinese Lunar New Year lantern and fireworks display ended in disaster when spectators packed on a metal bridge died in a crush. The bridge, bedecked with red lanterns, spans a 100-metre canal. Nearly 20 ambulances with sirens wailing were seen speeding up a highway in direction of Miyun. Roads leading to the area were dotted with police cars. Witnesses said the accident happened in Mihong Park where frantic parents searched for their children in the freezing night. "There were all these people crowding on the bridge, probably a few hundred. With that many people, there was sure to be a problem. The railing also seemed low," said witness Chi Zhangfeng.
  "I heard lots of people screaming, it seemed like it happened pretty fast," he said. Officials had earlier told of a bridge collapse injuring several people, with fatalities unknown. Chinese set off fireworks, display lanterns and eat sweet dumplings for the Lantern Festival, which falls on the 15th day of the first lunar month.

• 2004 (Feb 6th) - Moscow - 40 Dead in Moscow Metro Suicide Blast. A SUSPECTED suicide bomb tore through the Moscow metro during the morning rush hour, killing 40 people and wounding up to 150. Moscow police said they believed the blast was a terrorist attack. The Interfax news agency, citing police sources, said the Friday morning attack was carried out by a suicide bomber. The agency, quoting ambulance sources, said the death toll had reached 40. The explosion and a huge fire that followed sent choking clouds of smoke into the tunnels, the Emergency Situations Ministry said. The underground train and passengers were evacuated from Avtozavodskaya station, about 300 yards from the site of the explosion, said ministry spokesman Viktor Beltsov. The explosion was in the second wagon of a train after it left the Avtozavodskaya station and headed northwest to Paveletskaya station, on Moscow's busy circle line. The line is one of Moscow's deepest. More than 700 people have already been evacuated, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported. The majority of Russians are dependent on public transportation, and the spacious train wagons are usually packed tight during rush hour traffic.

• 2004 (2nd March) - Iraq by JONATHAN MILLER. It was what everyone had secretly dreaded, but no one thought would actually happen. Gripped by terror, the two million people who thronged the streets of the sacred city just started running in panic. These scenes filmed by one of the pilgrims who had come to Karbala for this, the holiest day on the Shiite calendar. It had been the first time in 35 years that Shiite pilgrims were free to gather in such numbers to grieve the martyrdom of Hussein, grandson of the prophet. Today, scores ended up martyrs themselves. As the first rumors of the Karbala massacre spread through Baghdad, four explosions boomed across the capital from the northern Shiite suburb of Aramiya. The U.S. Army said this was the work of suicide bombers, killers who consider themselves martyrs. The target was another Shiite shrine, again the streets were filled with the faithful. Outside the hospital near the mosque, we met a man who said his three sisters had been killed. "What crime had they committed?" He wailed.

• 2004 (March 11th) - Madrid. Crowd attack which killed 200 people and wounded 1,500. Officials said phones were apparently used as detonators on the 10 bombs that tore through four rush-hour trains. Ten terrorist bombs tore through trains and stations along a commuter line at the height of Madrid's morning rush hour. "This is mass murder,'' said a somber Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar following an emergency cabinet meeting, vowing to hunt down the attackers and ruling out negotiations with the ETA separatist group. The explosives used in the blasts were a type of dynamite that the ETA Basque separatist group normally uses, the Interior Ministry said following tests. But a US intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said, "It's too early to tell. We're not ruling anything out.'' Panicked commuters abandoned bags and their shoes as they trampled each other to escape the Atocha terminal, where bombs struck two trains. Some fled into darkened, dangerous tunnels at the station, a bustling hub for subway, commuter and long-distance trains just south of Madrid's famed Prado Museum. The blasts began about 7.50 am, tearing through trains or platforms on the commuter line running to the Atocha station. At least two of the bombs went off in trains at that station. Worst hit was a double-decker train at the El Pozo station, where two bombs killed 70 people, fire department inspector Juan Redondo said. El Pozo is about six miles from Atocha.

• 2004 (August 2nd) - Paraguay supermarket fire kills 283 Mon 2 Aug, 2004 3:14:21 GMT By Daniela Desantis ASUNCION, Paraguay (Reuters) - A fire has swept through a supermarket packed with shoppers on the Paraguayan capital's outskirts and killed at least 283 people, police say. More than 100 people were injured in an inferno that officials said was caused by a gas explosion near the food court of the huge Ycua Bolanos supermarket, causing part of the roof to collapse. Flames then engulfed a parking lot underneath. Police said the toll was expected to rise on Monday. "There are no words for this," said Orlando Correa, weeping minutes after identifying the corpse of his six-month-old nephew. He searched for his sister among lines of charred bodies in a nearby discotheque that became a makeshift morgue. Police said they were probing reports shoppers were trapped inside after the supermarket locked its doors to stop people looting or leaving without paying. Firefighters found its main door closed when they arrived, police said, but supermarket officials denied doors had been locked. Paraguay, a country of 6 million people, was calling it the nation's worst tragedy since a 1930s war with neighbouring Bolivia that killed thousands. In chaotic scenes, rescuers carried bodies, some black from burns and smoke, out of the supermarket in their arms. Firefighters took charred body remains out of the supermarket on stretchers. Television said there were about 700 people in the complex at the time but there was no official estimate. "There are still bodies inside the building, but firefighters cannot enter because of the ruins and the danger of collapse," Paraguayan police chief Humberto Nunez told Reuters.  Some of the burned bodies were found inside the supermarket hugging each other, including a woman with a small child in her arms, a firefighter told local radio. BURNED ALIVE IN CARS.  Other victims were burned alive in their cars as the blaze swept though a parking lot underneath the supermarket, local television reported. Dozens of ambulances and fire engines gathered outside the large supermarket, located in a working-class district, where residents of all economic classes do their Sunday shopping. Plumes of black smoke rose from its roof six hours after the blaze. The supermarket's owner was taken into custody and is being investigated, the prosecutor's office said. Some survivors were thrown on the backs of open trucks that were driven to hospitals. One woman wept outside the supermarket, waiting for news of her missing 14-year-old son. "I need information on my son. He's not in any of the hospitals I've contacted," she said. "It is a moment of huge grief and tension, and we are here to give a voice of support to people who are suffering so much," said President Nicanor Duarte Frutos, who rushed with his wife to the scene of the blaze. The disaster appeared to have stretched the emergency services of one of South America's poorest nations. Local television showed firefighters trying to plug holes in leaking water hoses with the soles of their boots. Local media called on citizens to donate basic supplies, like gloves, to hospitals. Private hospitals opened their doors to victims of the blaze but were short of respirators. neighbouring Argentina said it was sending Sunday night a Hercules transport plane with medical supplies to Paraguay.

• 2004 (Sept. 2nd) Saudi Arabia  - Two Killed in IKEA Stampede. People gather at the new IKEA store in Jeddah where the stampede happened. Hundreds of shoppers drawn by a voucher offer rushed into an IKEA branch in western Saudi Arabia, causing a stampede that killed two people and injured sixteen. A Saudi and a Pakistani were among those killed, officials said. The nationality of the third person killed was not given. Furniture giant IKEA's branch in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah announced that it was offering credit vouchers to the first 250 customers, prompting some shoppers to camp outside overnight. Once the doors opened, the crowd surged forward, causing the stampede.

• 2004 (November 20th) - LOME (Reuters) - At least 13 people died and others were injured in a crush at a demonstration in Togo Saturday to welcome an improvement in relations with the European Union, the West African country's government said. A huge crowd marched to President Gnassingbe Eyadema's residence to celebrate an EU decision this week to restart some aid programs, suspended since 1993 over concerns about the authoritarian rule of Africa's longest-serving leader. But in a rush to get into the courtyard, demonstrators jostled in a crush and were trampled on, witnesses said. The crowd in the capital Lome was several hundred thousand strong, far too big for the grounds of the residence, according to a government statement read out on state television. "The rush by the demonstrators led to crushes which injured people and several of them have succumbed to their wounds," the statement said, adding 13 were known to have died. The government had hailed the EU's decision as a major event although the bloc made clear it was restarting just some of its programs. Others would resume over the next 24 months only if the government keeps its commitments to democratic reform. Eyadema, who has been in power since 1967, has been working in recent months to improve ties with Europe. He freed some 500 prisoners, including opposition activists, in August and has pledged to improve his government's human rights record. But the EU has said it wants to see more progress, including the holding of free and fair elections in the country of some five million people whose average income is $310 per year At least 13 die in stampede in Togo Celebration turns deadly as crowd surges forward through gate EBOW GODWIN  Associated Press. LOME, Togo - A celebration at the gates of Togo's presidential palace turned into a stampede Saturday, killing at least 13 people as excited crowds tried to surge onto palace grounds in the capital of the tiny West African nation. Officials warned that the death toll could climb, as hospitals treated scores of other victims. The celebration was called to mark the easing of 11 years of European Union sanctions against President Gnassingbe Eyadema, Africa's longest-ruling leader. Large crowds of Eyadema's party members and others marched through the capital Saturday to the palace. When the palace gates were thrown open to admit them, the crushing throngs of celebrants tried to push through at once. Men and women's shoes and flip-flops, torn off in the crush, lay abandoned at the gates Saturday after the stampede. A government statement put the death toll at 13. Aid workers still were treating at least 50 people trampled by the crowd. The European Union announced Monday it would resume limited aid work with Togo, supporting humanitarian and human-rights projects only. The union suspended aid to Togo in 1993 after government forces allegedly killed hundreds during election violence. Most other international aid also has been suspended. EU officials said Monday they had noted initial moves toward democratic and human-rights reforms by Eyadema's regime but that full aid would resume only when Togo holds free and fair legislative elections. Government spokesman Pitang Tchalla said organizers of Saturday's celebration "underestimated the enthusiasm of participants who turned out in unexpected large numbers for today's event, meant to express thanks to the European Union and support for President Eyadema." Eyadema has ruled tiny Togo for 37 years. He assumed power in 1967, after leading Africa's first post-independence coup in 1963. Worldwide, only Fidel Castro has held power longer.

• 2004 (December 31st) - Fire in Buenos Aires club kills 169. 9:47:40 GMT By Hilary Burke BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (Reuters) -A blaze in a Buenos Aires night club packed with young revellers celebrating the New Year holidays has killed at least 169 people and injured 375, as a stampeding crowd was trapped by locked exit doors, officials say. The blaze is thought to have been caused by a flare fired into the club's ceiling during a rock concert, sending burning debris onto the crowd of up to 4,000 people who desperately fought to flee the flames and suffocating smoke. "The fire spread in a minute and we were a mountain of people trying to escape," said survivor Ariel Monges,25, who lost a friend and a cousin in the fire and was searching for another friend at a city hospital on Friday. The blaze, which officials called one of Argentina's worst disasters, may have claimed more victims because four of the club's six doors were tied shut with wire, according to Interior Minister Anibal Fernandez. "It appears they were condemned to walk into a trap," Fernandez said. Mayor Anibal Ibarra said the emergency exit appeared to be shut" so that people wouldn't enter without paying" and firefighters had to break it open. Most of the victims are believed to have died from smoke inhalation. The rock band playing at the Republica Cromagnon club in the gritty, run-down neighbourhood of Once warned the crowd not to shoot flares due to the fire hazard, the mayor said. But after the first song, an hour before midnight on Thursday, a group fired one into the highly flammable foam ceiling. Flares and a whole array of fireworks are sold on streets all over Latin America for the New Year holiday festivities with little regulation. Lists at hospitals showed that most of the victims were in their teens and20s, but there were also children as young as 6 among the dead and injured. City Hall set up an emergency centre in the middle of the night for families to find out about victims. "The city does not remember such a grave situation," city health secretary Alfredo Stern said. PARENTS DESPERATE Police said the fire was extinguished quickly, but rescue workers spent a few hours removing people on stretchers from inside the club. Television showed pictures of the bodies lying on the sidewalks outside the club. Parents first rushed to the scene desperate to find their sons and daughters amid the chaos, but then flocked to the 14 hospitals where the dead and injured were taken. At a makeshift morgue in a garage beside the club, witnesses said 30bodies were lined up and family members were allowed to pass to identify them. "There was a girl who must have been around 10 years old," said Fernando Justiniano, a former fireman who helped in the rescue. "She was asphyxiated poor thing, and she was burned. "The blaze was the worst in the Americas since a supermarket fire in neighbouring Paraguay last August killed nearly 400 people. The owners are accused of closing the doors after the fire broke out to stop looting. Many other fires have occurred in Latin America in recent years because of fireworks. Exactly three years ago, more than300 people were killed when a fire roared through a crowded shopping area in the Peruvian capital Lima. The blaze started with an explosion at a shop selling fireworks for New Year parties. Thursday night's Buenos Aires club fire recalled a similar blaze in the United States in February 2003 when a pyrotechnics display at the start of a heavy metal concert ignited sound-proofing material at a club in Rhode Island, killing 100 people and injuring nearly 200.The Argentine capital's last major tragedies were a bombing against the Israeli Embassy in 1992 and another one in a Jewish community centre in 1994. More than 100 people died in the two attacks. Click Here for the news reports on this event.

2005 Crowd Disasters

• 2005 (January 25th) 150 die in religious stampede, Wai, India. Thousands of Hindus panicked during a religious procession in western India, triggering a stampede that killed at least 150 people. Many more people were injured. The stampede occurred near the village of Wai, 150 miles south of Bombay. Local leader Sharad Jadhav said he had been told by officials at the scene that 150 people were killed. Accounts differed on exactly what had happened. Jadhav said the stampede was caused by overcrowding, but police said it was triggered by a fire. "A fire caused by a short circuit in a makeshift shop near the temple created panic among the pilgrims. Some tried to flee the area, starting the stampede," said KK Pathak, the inspector-general of police in the region. The situation grew worse when a narrow path leading to the temple became jammed with pilgrims. More than 300,000 people are reported to have gathered for the Hindu festival, said AD Ingle, deputy superintendent of police in the area. Hindus congregate every year at the hilltop temple of the Hindu goddess Mandra Devi on a full moon night. Stampedes are not uncommon at major Hindu religious festivals, which can attract millions of worshippers. Authorities are often unable to cope with the huge crowds. Stampede and fire kill hundreds in India. Tue 25 Jan, 2005 14:45:07 GMT. BOMBAY (Reuters) - As many as 300 Hindu pilgrims, including women and children, may have been crushed or burned to death in a stampede and fire near a temple in western India, the district's top official has said. A fire broke out in roadside stalls when more than 150,000 people were on an annual pilgrimage to the popular Mandher Devi temple, on a hilltop near Wai, about 162 miles southeast of Bombay, witnesses said. Scores were crushed to death on the steep and narrow hill path leading to the temple and many others were charred, they said. Reporters saw at least 100 bodies at the site. "We cannot confirm it, but it appears that 250 to 300 people are dead, "Subbarao Patil, district collector for Satara district where the temple is located, told a correspondent for Asia News International television on Tuesday. "This does not include the people who may have been charred to death in the shops that have been gutted nearby in the fire. "Dishevelled and mangled bodies were lined up and tin-roofed stalls were smouldering near the temple and the adjoining settlement, situated on a craggy hilltop about 4,000 feet (1,220metres) high, the ANI reporter said. "There more than a hundred dead bodies lying around and dozens of others have already been sent down to Wai by bus," she told Reuters by phone. "It is utter mayhem here. The sheds are still smouldering." WET STEPS. Witnesses said the stampede started around midday after pilgrims slipped on the temple's steep stone steps, which had become wet from coconuts broken as an offering to the local deity Kalubai. A fire then broke out in shops nearby and gas cylinders exploded, officials said. The 300-year-old temple is popular among lower caste Hindus who undertake the annual pilgrimage on a full-moon day in January and participate in a 24-hour-long festival that includes ritual animal sacrifices to the goddess. In 2003, more than 32 people died at a stampede in Nasik, another town in the western Maharashtra state, during the Kumbh Mela, or Grand Pitcher festival.

• 2005 (February 9th) London - Edmonton. Man Stabbed in Ikea Opening Chaos. 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. Click here for more information

• 2005 (February 27th) OUAGADOUGOU, West Africa. Two die at gala opening of African film festival. Sun 27 Feb, 2005 3:22:29 GMT OUAGADOUGOU (Reuters) - Two people have died in a stampede ahead of the free gala opening ceremony for Africa's Fespaco film festival in a football stadium in Burkina Faso, festival officials said. The two people died at the national football stadium in Ouagadougou, the dusty capital of this West African nation which hosts the continent's biggest film festival every two years." The official opening ceremony of the 19th Fespaco ... claims two deaths and 15 injured persons as a result of a stampede," the festival organisers said in a statement. The statement said police blamed the incident on Saturday on crowd reaction. When the August 4 stadium opened early in the afternoon, people rushed in, racing to get to the stand which receives most shade from the sun, witnesses said. In the crush, people fell from an upper balcony and two oft hem died, they added. "Everyone rushes to go in, mainly because it's free. Nobody pays anything, so everyone wants to come n and watch the spectacle," said a fire officer at the scene. The accident happened several hours before the gala event which drew 35,000 people. It was the first time deaths were registered at the opening ceremony for the festival, which began in 1969.Festival director Baba Hama asked for a minute's silence later as the opening ceremony got underway. It featured a performance by Malian musician Salif Keita and fireworks. But the fireworks also went wrong, with some heading directly into the crowds. One person was slightly injured and another was treated for shock. The biennial Pan-African Cinema and Television Festival, or Fespaco, runs from February 26 until March 5.Twenty feature-length movies will compete for the top Etalon de Yennenga, or Golden Stallion of Yennenga, prize. Crushes at football stadiums are not uncommon in Africa. Last October, a stampede after a power cut in Togo caused the death of three people at a soccer match. Two die at gala opening of African film festival Sun 27 Feb, 2005 3:22:29 GMT OUAGADOUGOU (Reuters) - Two people have died in a stampede ahead of the free gala opening ceremony for Africa's Fespaco film festival in a football stadium in Burkina Faso, festival officials said. The two people died at the national football stadium in Ouagadougou, the dusty capital of this West African nation which hosts the continent's biggest film festival every two years. "The official opening ceremony of the 19th Fespaco ... claims two deaths and 15 injured persons as a result of a  stampede," the festival organisers said in a statement. The statement said police blamed the incident on Saturday on crowd reaction. When the August 4 stadium opened early in the afternoon, people rushed in, racing to get to the stand which receives most shade from the sun, witnesses said. In the crush, people fell from an upper balcony and two of them died, they added. "Everyone rushes to go in, mainly because it's free. Nobody pays anything, so everyone wants to come in and watch the spectacle," said a fire officer at the scene. The accident happened several hours before the gala event which drew 35,000 people. It was the first time deaths were registered at the opening ceremony for the festival, which began in 1969. Festival director Baba Hama asked for a minute's silence later as the opening ceremony got underway. It featured a performance by Malian musician Salif Keita and fireworks. But the fireworks also went wrong, with some heading directly into the crowds. One person was slightly injured and another was treated for shock. The biennial Pan-African Cinema and Television Festival, or Fespaco, runs from February 26 until March 5. Twenty feature-length movies will compete for the top Etalon de Yennenga, or Golden Stallion of Yennenga, prize. Crushes at football stadiums are not uncommon in Africa. Last October, a stampede after a power cut in Togo caused the death of three people at a soccer match.

• 2005 (14th Februaru) 35 die in Tehran mosque blaze Mon 14 Feb, 2005 18:17:49 GMT By Parisa Hafezi TEHRAN (Reuters) - Thirty-five people have been killed and 200 injured when a faulty electrical heater started ablaze in a Tehran mosque crowded with worshippers for a major Shi'ite Muslim festival, Iranian state television has reported. Aid workers and emergency services warmed around the mosque, a Reuters witness said. The inside of the mosque was blackened and littered with burned shoes and clothes. Many people flocked to the mosque searching for loved ones. "I have come to look for my daughter but I am scared she is dead," said Zeinab, clad in the all-enveloping black chador. The students' news agency ISNA reported on Monday a blast was heard then tents inside the mosque caught fire. Terrified worshippers trampled others trying to escape, some smashing windows in their desperation to escape the flames. "I saw some women throw themselves out of a second floor window, some died like that, others from smoke inhalation," said one of the guards at the mosque. ISNA reported the blaze started in the section set aside for women. Television said twenty of the dead were women. "My mother and two sisters were inside and I do not know what happened to them," said a girl called Manizheh, sobbing. State television put out an appeal fo rpeople to give blood. Shi'ite Muslims are pouring into mosques to commemorate the death of the seventh century Shi'ite martyr Hossein, who was killed on the battlefield of Kerbala in Iraq. Tents are common props in plays commemorating Hossein's last days. Mosques are also draped with many hangings. Intelligence ministry officials were seen taking away pieces of the heater to determine the cause of the blaze. Dozens die in Tehran mosque blaze Tue 15 Feb, 2005 8:03:01 GMT By Parisa Hafezi TEHRAN (Reuters) - Fifty-nine people have been killed and more than 200injured when a faulty electrical heater started a blaze in a Tehran mosque crowded with worshippers for a major Shi'ite Muslim festival, Iranian state media report. Aid workers and emergency services warmed around the mosque. The interior was blackened and strewn with burnt shoes and clothes. Tehran's deputy police chief Morteza Talai said on Monday 59 people had died and 219 were injured. Many people flocked to the Arg mosque searching for relatives and friends. "I have come to look for my daughter rbut I am scared she is dead," said Zeinab, clad in the all-enveloping black chador. The students news agency ISNA reported a blast was heard then tents inside the mosque caught fire. Terrified worshippers trampled others trying to escape, some smashing windows in their desperation to flee the flames. "I saw some women throw themselves out of a second floor window, some died like that, others from smoke inhalation," said one of the guards at the mosque. ISNA reported the blaze started in the section set aside for women. Television said 20 of the dead were women. "My mother and two sisters were inside and I do not know what happened to them," said a girl called Manizheh, sobbing. Mohammad Sharifnia, a doctor, said many of the burns were caused by the quick-burning acrylic material used to make chadors. He saw many people with lacerations from broken glass. Others had broken legs after hurling themselves from high windows. State television put out an appeal for people to give blood. Shi'ite Muslims are pouring into mosques to commemorate the death of the seventh century Shi'ite martyr Hossein, who was killed on the battlefield of Kerbala in Iraq. Tents are common props in plays commemorating Hossein's last days. Mosques are also draped with many hangings. Intelligence ministry officials were seen taking away pieces of the heater to determine the cause of the blaze The Arg mosque is near Tehran's sprawling bazaar and is used for political meetings of the bazaar's conservative guilds.

• 2005 (28th Feb) Bagdad. Suicide Bomber Kills 125 Iraqi Job Seekers Naseer Al-Nahr, Arab News BAGHDAD, 1 March 2005 — A man drove a car full of explosives into a crowd of people applying for police jobs in Hilla, 100 km south of the capital, yesterday and detonated it. At least 125 people were killed and another 130 wounded in the single bloodiest attack in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein. The 9.30 a.m. blast was so powerful it nearly vaporized the bomber’s car, leaving only its engine partially intact. The injured were piled into pickup trucks and ambulances and taken to nearby hospitals. The bomber blew the car up next to a line of recruits waiting at a health center to take an eye test so they could join the Iraqi police, witnesses said. Many of those killed were at the market across the road, and were caught in the