One particular person was killed and dozens have been injured when excessive winds brought on a part of a stage to collapse at a dance music festival close to the Spanish metropolis of Valencia in the early hours of Saturday, regional emergency providers mentioned.
Different infrastructure was additionally broken when gusts battered the Medusa Festival, an enormous digital music festival held over six days in the east coast city of Cullera, south of Valencia.
Of the injured, three suffered critical trauma accidents and 14 had extra minor accidents, regional emergency providers tweeted. Regional well being authorities mentioned later that 40 folks have been attended to.
“We are completely devastated and saddened at what happened this morning,” organisers mentioned in a press release on the festival’s Fb web page.
They mentioned “extraordinary” climate situations had brought on injury to varied infrastructure on the festival website.
“At around four in the morning unexpected and violent strong winds destroyed certain areas of the festival, forcing management to make the immediate decision to vacate the concert area to guarantee the safety of attendees, workers and artists,” organisers mentioned.
The festival was suspended in the intervening time, they mentioned.
Nationwide broadcaster TVE confirmed photos of robust gusts of wind battering towards folks’s tents in the midnight.
“We are in a state of shock because we were 30 metres away (from the stage). It could have been me, it could have been anyone,” Jesus Carretero, who attended the festival along with his brother, instructed TVE.
Nationwide climate company AEMET mentioned there had been “strong gusts of wind and a sudden rise in temperatures” throughout the evening, with gusts of 82 kph (51 mph) recorded at Alicante airport in the Valencia area.
