Three dead after storm hits Belgian music festival
Three people have been killed and 40 injured after a storm ripped through a music festival in the Belgian city of Hasselt. An eyewitness says the freak weather was ‘like the end of the world’
Seven people were seriously injured 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.
An eyewitness, Catherine Blaise, described her experience to a French magazine.
“The sky had gone completely black and we were sheltering there waiting for the rain. Then suddenly the heavens opened. A violent wind picked up and the structure supporting the tent gave way.
“The tent began to blow about all over the place. Everyone started to run. We were sheltering behind a little billboard. Hailstones over a centimetre big were falling. I have bruises all over. Trees fell down. It was awful, like the end of the world.”
The three-day Pukkelpop festival was set to have featured rapper Eminem and U.S. 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.
