Global General

Death toll at German Love Parade stampede hits 21

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-07-28 19:16

BERLIN - A 25-year-old German woman who was seriously injured in Saturday's Love Parade stamped died early Wednesday,raising the death toll to 21, officials said.

The Love Parade, a festival for electric music fans from all over the world, turned out to be a great tragedy as a massive panic at the entrance tunnel caused a stampede which killed 21 people, 16 at the scene, and injured more than 500.

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A memorial service for victims of the event will be held on Saturday. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Christian Wulff are expected to attend the event, German officials said on Tuesday.

The major of Duisburg, Adolf Sauerland, has been greatly criticized for the disaster as he had ignored repeated warnings beforehand that the city was inappropriate for the staging of such a large festival.

Sauerland has been asked to resign and even received death threats, local media reports.

The state premier of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), where Duisburg located, Hannelore Kraft said on Tuesday responsibility should be taken for the tragedy at a political level, when she visited the tunnel where tragedy happened.

Local newspaper the Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily said NRW Interior Minister Ralf Jaeger will issue an interim report on Wednesday to inform the public of the latest developments in the investigation.