At Least 18 Ravers Killed In Mass Panic At The Germany Love Parade Celebration…

It is being reported that at least 18 people have been trampled to death on their way to attend the Love-parade techno music festival in the western German city of Duisburg on Saturday.(PerzHilton)

Germany's LoveParade Stampede Kills 18, many revelers injured...

Authorities earlier confirmed that 15 people had died and said an additional 80 were injured in the tunnel. Facing the crush of the crowd, paramedics had difficulty getting through to the site. Police later said that 16 people had died at the scene and that a further two had died of their injuries in hospital.(SOURCE)

The stampede broke out in a tunnel after authorities tried to stop thousands of people from entering the area where the parade was being held.

“People in a tunnel were completely crushed. They could not move forward, they could not move back.”That is when the panic broke out,” he said.

The festival was not immediately cancelled because authorities feared that could spark a second panic.(SOURCE)

[picapp align=”left” wrap=”true” link=”term=loveparade&iid=891295″ src=”http://view4.picapp.com/pictures.photo/image/891295/loveparade/loveparade.jpg?size=500&imageId=891295″ width=”234″ height=”334″ /]The Love Parade has its roots in the spirit of a changing Europe. In 1989, it was first celebrated four months before the demolition of the Berlin Wall. It was started by the Berlin Underground under the initiative of Matthias Roeingh aka “Dr Motte” and his then girlfriend Danielle de Picciotto.

It was held as a political demonstration for peace and international understanding through love and Music.(WIKI)

The organizers of the LoveParade left the following message on their website, announcing that they have stopped the live stream of the event: Our wish to arrange a happy togetherness was overshadowed by the tragic accidents today. Therefore we are ending the live stream of the LoveParade.

Our sincere condolences to all the relatives and our thoughts are with all of those who are currently being taken care of.

The city of Duisburg has set up a hotline at which concerned relatives can get further information: ++49 – (0) 203-94000.

The BBC has posted several eyewitness accounts of the events here (BBC)…and it seems that whoever is responsible for stopping the crowd exiting the tunnel safely, is responsible for the deaths of these peaceful partygoers.[picapp align=”right” wrap=”true” link=”term=loveparade&iid=891294″ src=”http://view2.picapp.com/pictures.photo/image/891294/loveparade/loveparade.jpg?size=500&imageId=891294″ width=”234″ height=”147″ /]

Police initially said the crush was in the tunnel itself, but Duisburg official Wolfgang Rabe said it happened on steps leading up to it, where “people died after climbing over the barriers and falling.”

Organizers have estimated that  1.4 million people had turned out for joyous celebration of dance culture and techno.(Huffington Post)

Most revellers remained unaware of the incident and continued dancing and listening to music long afterwards as authorities kept a lid on the news in a bid to prevent a further outbreak of chaos.(SOURCE)

It appears that stopping the crowd from moving forward, had the same effect as yelling “Fire” in a crowded theater…this is a major tragedy, and needs to be investigated to find out what went wrong!

[picapp align=”center” wrap=”false” link=”term=loveparade&iid=891309″ src=”http://view4.picapp.com/pictures.photo/image/891309/loveparade/loveparade.jpg?size=500&imageId=891309″ width=”380″ height=”291″ /]

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