One killed, dozens injured as winds batter music festival

79
1
One killed, dozens injured as winds batter music festival

One person was killed and dozens were injured in the early hours of Saturday when high winds caused a collapse of a stage at a dance music festival near the Spanish city of Valencia.

Other infrastructure was damaged when gusts battered the Medusa festival, a huge electronic music festival held over six days in the east coast town of Cullera, south of Valencia.

Three of the injured suffered serious trauma injuries and 14 had more minor injuries, regional emergency services said. The health authorities said that 40 people were attended to.

The festival's Facebook page has been completely devastated and saddened by what happened this morning.

They said extreme weather conditions had caused damage to infrastructure on the festival site.

At around four in the morning, unexpected and violent winds destroyed certain parts of the festival, forcing management to make a decision to leave the concert area in order to ensure the safety of attendees, workers and artists, according to the organisers.

The festival was suspended for the time being.

TVE, the national broadcaster, showed images of strong gusts of wind battering people's tents in the middle of the night.

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 with his brother, told TVE.

The national weather agency said that there had been strong gusts of wind and a sudden rise in temperatures during the night, with gusts of 51 mph recorded at the Alicante airport in the Valencia region.