At least 44 other people were crushed to be crushed Friday night at an ultra-Orthodox devotee festival in Israel with participants describing scenes of chaos in which others died before their eyes.
More than a hundred others were injured in the chaos where tens of thousands of others accumulated in front of the tomb in Galilee of the sensible Rabbi Shim Bar Yochai, from the present century, for the annual commemorations of Lag B’Omer that come with all the afternoon prayer, mystical songs and dances.
Witnesses reported that others had been suffocated or trampled in a narrow passage about 3 meters wide, some went unnoticed until the public faced the formula a call to disperse rang out.
Crowds invaded the slope of Mount Meron defying warnings at the social distance opposite the coronavirus.
Doctors said there had been a stampede in the male segment of the sexist festival, including children.
Some of the dead had not yet met and the circle of relatives of the festival participants who were still missing called radio stations for help locating them.
“We were going to dance and all of a sudden we saw the paramedics of the (ambulance service) MDA running, like cpR in children,” he told Reuters Shlomo Katz, 36.
Then the ambulances came out “one after the other. “
Videos posted on social media showed ultra-Orthodox men desperately through the hollows of corrugated iron sheets to escape infatuation. The bodies lay on stretchers in a hallway, covered with aluminum blankets.
A mendacity of a guy injured in a hospital bed described to reporters how the accident began when a line of other people in front of the crowd collapsed.
“PEOPLE DEAD BEFORE MY EYES”:
“A pyramid has formed on one on the other. People piled up on the most sensitive to each other. Me in the place for now. People in the front row, I’ve noticed that other people die before my eyes,” he said.
Those who remained on the scene all night wondered how the stage had been so temporarily uncontrollable, even though the safety hazards of the annual occasion were fearsome for years.
Religious leaders have called for an investigation. The Justice Department said investigators would analyze the tragedy.
A police spokesman said that Mount Meron’s overall capacity is similar to that of previous years, but that this time the bonfire spaces were divided as a precaution for the Covid-19.
Helicopters transported other injured people to hospitals and the army said search and rescue troops had been revolted.
With clearing, rescuers collapsed opposite bars, some crying as their companions comforted them.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the site and on Twitter referred to a “serious catastrophe,” adding, “We all pray for the welfare of the wounded. “
The United States and the European Union presented their condolences.
While rescuers were trying to get the wounded out, the police shut him down and ordered the revelers out. The Ministry of Transport stopped roadworks in the domain to allow dozens of ambulances and pilgrim buses to move unhindered.
The tomb of Mount Meron is one of the highest sacred sites in the Jewish world and is an annual pilgrimage site.
The occasion was one of the largest meetings in Israel since the coronavirus pandemic outbreak more than a year ago.
Private bonfires in Mount Meron were banned last year due to coronavirus restrictions, but blockade measures were relaxed this year as a component of Israel’s immediate vaccination program opposed to Covid-19, which saw more than 54% of the population fully vaccinated.