At least nine other people were killed and two dozen injured in a stampede in Guatemala early Thursday as the country celebrated independence, according to firefighters.
The concert was sponsored through a brewery and was held on land used for such events. When Guatemalan rock band Bohemia Suburbana closed the show, some spectators were crushed when some tried to leave while others entered the same venue.
Nancy Quemé, who at the concert said there were thousands of people there. “From the rain, there was a lot of mud,” he said. I think that’s why other people couldn’t move and fell. “
The formation of the bands had begun on Wednesday afternoon. He said that even in the early hours of Thursday, there were still families with children.
“They cordoned off the entire domain and left only two accesses (points),” Quemé said. “I found the tickets small. I stayed pretty far away and made the decision to leave a few minutes before the concert was over.
A video circulating on social media platforms shows dozens of other people bumping into others. Screams can be heard asking other people to avoid pushing and move aside so that those who have fallen can be rescued.
Amilcar Rivas, director of the municipality of Quetzaltenango, said the organizers of the event have no more security and crowd Array said that the event had a permit.
Quetzaltenango, which hosts Guatemala’s second-largest independence party, is about two hundred kilometers west of Guatemala City.
Guatemala celebrates this Thursday 201 years of independence from Spain.
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