Spanish girls in German tragedy

Wednesday, 28 July 2010 11:04

Written by Editor

Two Spanish students – Clara Zapater, 22, and 21-year-old Marta Acosta - were among the 20 people who died in the Love Parade stampede in Duisburg on Saturday. Eleven of the victims were German and the other eight came from Australia, Italy, the Netherlands, China, Bosnia and Spain.

They ranged in age from 20 to 40. The number injured in the disaster was put at 511 on Monday. None of the injuries were life-threatening. It is still not clear how many people were at the scene when the crush happened, outside a tunnel at the entrance to the techno music festival.

German media said the festival had drawn about 1.4 million people but a local official in charge of the emergency response said the site "can hold 300,000 people and it was at no time full". Critics argued that the organisers and police were not prepared for such huge numbers of visitors and the site itself - an old railway yard - was too small and completely unsuitable.