Europe
        

Society

Three dead after storm hits Belgian pop festival

Updated: 2011-08-19 08:36

(Agencies)

Twitter Facebook Myspace Yahoo! Linkedin Mixx

HASSELT, Belgium - Three people were killed after a storm ripped through a pop festival in Belgium on Thursday.

Three dead after storm hits Belgian pop festival

A girl uses her cell phone at Pukkelpop outdoor music festival after a tent collapsed following a heavy storm near Hasselt, northern Belgium, August 18, 2011. [Photo/Agencies]

A further 40 festival-goers were injured, seven of them seriously, when a brief burst of high winds and heavy rain flattened tents, uprooted trees, pulled the roof off a stage and brought down giant screens, officials said.

Some 60,000 to 65,000 mainly young people were attending the sold-out festival when the storm struck late in the afternoon.

One was killed on the festival grounds and another on a campsite, Hilde Claes, mayor of the eastern Belgian city of Hasselt told a news conference.

The local fire service later said a third person had died.

The three-day Pukkelpop festival was set to have featured rapper Eminem and US bands Foo Fighters and The Offspring.

The festival was suspended and organisers were meeting to decide whether to proceed on Friday and Saturday as planned.

The Belgian disaster comes just five days after five people died when an outdoor concert stage collapsed in heavy winds at the Indiana State Fair in the United States.  

   Previous Page 1 2 3 Next Page  

E-paper

Going with the flow

White-collar workers find a traditional exercise helps them with the frustrations of city life

The light touch
 Long way to go 
Outdoor success

European Edition

Specials

Star journalist remembered

Friends, colleagues attended a memorial service to pay tribute to veteran reporter Li Xing in US.

Robots seen as employer-friendly

Robots are not new to industrial manufacturing. They have been in use since the 1960s.

A prosperous future

Wedding website hopes to lure chinese couples

Sowing the seeds of doubt
Lifting the veil
Exclusive attraction