After Sunday’s Angelus, Pope Benedict remembered the victims of a tragic incident during a celebration in Germany this weekend. Nineteen people died as a result of a “stampede” at a musical festival called the “Love Parade” in Duisburg, Germany on Saturday night.
According to Reuters, after closing the only entrance to the festival, a tunnel, in an attempt to better organize the massive crowd, “mass panic” broke out.
Pope Benedict expressed his "sorrow" for the "tragedy," entrusting the deceased, injured and their relatives to the Lord. For all of them, he asked the "comfort and the closeness of the Holy Spirit."
The techno dance festival drew an estimated 1.4 million young people from all over Europe. It was originally an event to promote peace, with the first parade taking place in the German capital city just months before the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Reuters reported that police have opened an investigation to determine the cause of the panic that led to the fatal stampede which also injured more than 300 people.
SIC: CNA