At least 38 people have been killed during a ‘disastrous’ crush at a religious bonfire festival in Israel on Friday.
Video of the horrifying tragedy posted on social media appears to show thousands of revellers fleeing as frantic police officers tear down metal barriers with their bare hands.
In chaotic scenes Ultra-Orthodox men clamber through gaps in sheets of torn corrugated iron to escape the crush, as police and paramedics tried to reach the wounded.
Bodies lay on stretchers in a corridor, completely covered in foil blankets.
One unnamed witness was reported to have said: “It happened in a split second; people just fell, trampling each other. It was a disaster.”
Another, Avi, who helped treat the injured, told Haaretz: “I had just sat down to eat when I heard the screams.
“We rushed to help, and then we saw the bodies. At the start it was about 10. Now, there’s many more.”
Medics confirmed that dozens of people had been killed and more hurt at the Lag B’Omer event in northern Mount Meron, where tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews were gathered.
The Magen David Adom ambulance service said 103 people had been injured, including dozens fatally.
Channel 12 TV put the number of dead at 38 and police have shut down the site and ordered revellers to be evacuated by bus.
(Image: JINI PIX/AFP via Getty Images)
Witnesses said they realised people had been asphyxiated or trampled when an organiser appealed over a loudhailer for the throng to disperse.
“We thought maybe there was a (bomb) alert over a suspicious package. No one imagined that this could happen here.
“Rejoicing became mourning, a great light became a deep darkness,” a pilgrim who gave his name as Yitzhak told Channel 12 TV.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the tragedy as a “heavy disaster”.
On Twitter, he said: “We are all praying for the wellbeing of the casualties.”
Tens of thousands of people were there at the tomb of a 2nd-century sage for annual commemorations that include all-night prayer and dance.
As well as the dead the Magen David Adom ambulance service said around 20 people had life-threatening injuries after the stampede.
(Image: REUTERS)
According to Haaretz dozens of people were injured, and six are in a critical condition, 18 in serious condition, two in moderate condition and 39 sustaining light injuries.
“Sadly there are fatalities,” the director of Hatzala’s medical division Avi Marcus was reported to have said.
The stampede was believed to have been caused after revellers slipped on steps, police said, leading to dozens more people falling over.
In footage posted on social media frantic police officers were seen to tear open metal barriers in a bid to evacuate trapped people.
Officers are continuing to try to evacuate the tens of thousands of revellers who are at Mount Meron.
(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Mail Online reports that 10,000 people had been authorised to gather at the site but organisers said more than 650 busses were chartered from all over the country and that 30,000 pilgrims had been brought to Meron.
The tomb is considered to be one of the holiest sites in the Jewish world and it is an annual pilgrimage site.
The event is thought to be one of the largest gatherings of people – certainly in Israel and perhaps farther afield – since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic more than a year ago.
Private bonfires at Mount Meron were banned last year due to Covid restrictions, but lockdown measures were eased this year amid Israel’s rapid COVID-19 vaccination programme that has seen more than 50 per cent of the population fully vaccinated.
Police said on Thursday that they had arrested two people for disrupting officers’ efforts to keep order at the site.