LIMA, Peru – Thirteen other people were killed in a nightclub stampede in Peru after a police raid to enforce the blockade of the country by the coronavirus pandemic, authorities said Sunday.
The stampede occurred at the Thomas nightclub in Lima, where about 120 more people had accumulated for a party on Saturday night, the Interior Ministry said.
People tried to escape through the only door of the nightclub on the second floor, trampling on others and getting trapped in a confined space, the government said.
After the stampede, the police had to force them out the door.
Franco Asensios, one of those who attended the party, told local radio RPP that the police break-in began at nine o’clock at night. and that the government told the revelers to let the women out first.
“People gave the people excited and down, and then they said the other people across the street were suffocating,” he said.
Police arrested 23 people. The police chief, General Orlando Velasco, said no firearms or tear fuel were used in the raid.
Nightclubs have been banned from operating since March due to the pandemic. Peru began lifting quarantine restrictions on June 30 in an effort to bring the economy to life, and the number of reported viral infections has doubled to more than 9,000 in recent weeks.
Peru reported 27,500 deaths from the new coronavirus.
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