ZCZC
BFF-24
SPAIN-FESTIVAL-ACCIDENT
Hundreds injured in Spain festival promenade collapse
MADRID, Aug 13, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – More than 250 people have been injured,
five of them seriously, after part of a wooden promenade collapsed at a music
festival in Spain, local officials said Monday.
The seafront platform, which was 30 metres (98 feet) long by 10 metres
wide, was packed with people watching a rap artist in the northwestern city
of Vigo when it suddenly collapsed just before midnight on Sunday, Vigo mayor
Abel Caballero told reporters at the scene.
“The causes have yet to be determined. Everything indicates that no one is
trapped underneath,” he added.
Witnesses told Spanish media that people struggled to scramble for safety
from under the debris of the structure.
A total of 266 people were injured, five of them seriously with broken
bones requiring hospitalisation, the regional health minister in the
northwestern region of Galicia, Jesus Vazquez Almuina, told local radio.
“These are provisional figures, patients are still being evaluated. At the
moment 266 patients have been treated, the vast majority are light injuries
for bruises. There are five hospitalisations, mainly broken bones and some
head injuries,” he said.
The promenade collapse happened as Mallorcan rap artist Rels B was
performing as part of the two-day O Marisquino festival in Vigo, a city of
around 300,000 people.
BSS/AFP/FI/ 1412 hrs