Germany's Love Parade Festival Canceled Permanently As Death Toll Rises To 19

Deaths, more than 340 injuries occurred during stampede in underpass.

Paramedics transport an injured person to an ambulance after a stampede at Germany's Love Parade festival on July 24

Photo: Christoph Reichwein/ Getty Images

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Nineteen people were killed and more than 340 injured at the annual Love Parade music festival in the German city of Duisburg on Saturday, the result of a stampede that occurred beneath an overpass at the entrance of the festival grounds. According to The New York Times, police had closed off the festival grounds on Saturday evening, citing overcrowding (there were some 1.4 million people inside the Love Parade at the time), but failed to close off the entrance to a 200-meter long tunnel that led to the site of the concert.

More and more concertgoers streamed into the tunnel, only to find that the entrance — reportedly the only entrance to the fest — was shut. It was only then that police succeeded in blocking the entrance to the tunnel, effectively sealing hundreds of people inside. Panic ensued, as those trapped in the tunnel tried desperately to turn around and leave. The chaos was compounded by revelers inside the festival, who, after being told by loudspeakers to exit the grounds, piled back into the tunnel.

Video footage shot by Love Parade attendees showed people scrambling to make their way out of the tunnel, climbing ladders or being pulled up to nearby ramps. In the chaos, many people were crushed. The Deputy Police Chief of Duisburg told the BBC that "14 people died on the metal steps leading away from the tunnel [and] two on a wall outside the tunnel."

In the aftermath of the stampede, rescue workers struggled amid the crowds to evacuate the wounded, and helicopters reportedly had difficulty carrying away the severely injured because there was not enough space for them to land. German media also reported that cell phone service in the system of Duisburg temporarily failed, and frantic parents drove to the scene of the festival looking for their children.

In the hours following the incident, critics blamed Love Parade organizers for being unprepared to handle such a mass of concertgoers, and said that the site of this year's fest — an old railway yard — was too small and unsafe. The prosecutor of Duisburg has called for an official investigation on the matter, and, at a press conference on Sunday, police said they were working with organizers and attempting to gather evidence in order to reconstruct the events that led to the stampede, but that "it will be labor and time intensive."

Meanwhile, on Sunday morning, concertgoers had laid flowers and candles at the entrance of the gate, which was now blocked off by police barricades. And Love Parade organizer Rainer Schaller announced that, in light of the tragedy, he would be canceling the festival — which had been held off and on since 1989 — permanently, telling reporters, "The Love Parade has always been a joyful and peaceful party, but in future would always be overshadowed by yesterday's events ... out of respect for the victims, their families and friends, we are going to discontinue the event in the future, and that means the end of the Love Parade."