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Sunday, August 14, 2011

Panic as Indiana stage collapses; 4 dead

Rescue: Emergency crews were called to the scene and workers and set up a command centre to tend to those who were injured






These images capture the horrifying moment as four people were killed and a dozen injured as a stage collapsed during a storm last night at the Indiana State Fair.

Strong winds caused the stage rigging for the outdoor concert to collapse at the fairground in Indianapolis.

Fans were trapped and injured in the incident shortly before 9pm as country music band Sugarland were about to perform.

Emergency crews were called to the scene and workers are setting up a command centre to tend to those who were injured.

Thousands of concert-goers were being evacuated to a nearby building because of high winds of up to 60 mph (96 km/h) when the rigging for the stage fell onto the track where some were seated.

It was like it was in slow motion,' concert-goer Amy Weathers told the Indianapolis Star. 'You couldn't believe it was actually happening.

Those who were injured were being moved to a tunnel below the stage, the Star reported. A hole was being dug to try to reach those trapped beneath the rigging.

One man who narrowly escaped the falling stage said: 'When the stage collapsed, it missed my foot by about a foot and a half.

After making sure his girlfriend was alrifht, he said he helped try to lift the scaffolding off people who were trapped.

It's the way it fell. There were many people that were trapped underneath it but it didn't land on everybody,' he told local station WTHR.

It was the most traumatic thing I've ever seen,' Crystal Wilbur told the station. 'Everybody just came in together as a team.

Tony Francis was in the second row with his wife. He said: 'I saw at least five [fatalities] myself.

'When I left they had just lifted the master speakers and they found two more underneath that.

Mr Francis told WTHR his wife 'triaged about ten or twelve people with compound fractures, lacerations, a lot of head injuries and neck injuries.

Natalie Prater, who is a nurse, said the injured included a child. She described the 'amazing team effort' in the aftermath of the collapse.

There was no way we could be forewarned that something like this could happen,' she told WTHR.

She was leaving the concert with her husband when the stage collapsed.

We heard things popping and we took off running. People were pushing. We turned around and saw the stage collapsing.

Then we ran back, hopped over rafters and went to help as many people as we possibly can.

She estimated there could be 50 injured or more.

Photographer Darron Cummings was in the audience attending the concert shortly before the collapse.

He said an announcer gave the crowd instructions on how to evacuate if the weather worsened, but said they hoped to get Sugarland on stage soon.

Mr Cummings said he and his friends went ahead and sought shelter in a nearby barn after seeing the weather radar.

Then we heard screams. We heard people just come running,' Mr Cummings said.

Witnesses told WTHR that some of the injured were in a VIP section in front of the stage known as the 'Sugar Pit'.

The witnesses said a wall of dirt, dust, rain and wind came up the main thoroughfare of the fairgrounds just before the collapse.

Panic kicked in when they seen the dust bowl coming in from the Midway,' concert-goer Darryl Cox told WTHR.

Another person at the concert, Emily Davis, told WTHR that there was lightning and the sky had gotten dark but it wasn't raining when the wind suddenly toppled the rigging.

It was horrible, people were running and going crazy,' she said


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