This is a list of crowd collapses and crushes in which at least five people died. The deadliest modern crowd crush incidents have both occurred during the Hajj pilgrimage, with the 1990 Mecca tunnel tragedy claiming 1,426 lives and the 2015 Mina stampede claiming 2,400.[1] (Although the term "stampede" is used in some media outlets, the scientific consensus is that true stampedes involving humans are extremely rare.[1])
Ancient era
In AD 80, the Roman-Jewish historian Josephus recorded that in Jerusalem, while Ventidius Cumanus was procurator of Judea (AD 48–52), a Roman soldier mooned Jewish pilgrims at the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem who had gathered for Passover, and "spake such words as you might expect upon such a posture", causing a riot in which youths threw stones at the soldiers, who then called in reinforcements. The pilgrims panicked, and the ensuing stampede reportedly resulted in the deaths of thousands of Jews.[2] According to Josephus, "upwards of ten thousand"[3] and more than twenty thousand[4] people perished in the event, though these numbers may have been exaggerated.[5]
1700s
11 October 1711: 245 people were killed in a crush on the Guillotière bridge (Pont de la Guillotière [fr]) in Lyon, France, when a large crowd returning from a festival on the other side of the Rhône became trapped against an obstruction in the middle of the bridge caused by a collision between a carriage and a cart.[6]
30 May 1770: At least 133 people died when a fireworks display at what is now the Place de la Concorde in Paris, a celebration of the wedding of the future Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, set mannequins and other decorations aflame, leading to a panic in which many were trampled and others drowned in the adjacent Seine. Some historians have put the total death toll up to 3,000.[7]
Students suffocated after a staircase bannister failed while they were fleeing a possible fire, causing them to pile up at the bottom of the staircase.[9]
A crush occurred during admissions into Bell Street Hall for an upcoming promenade. The main entrance for the music hall was a downward flight of stairs with a set of inward opening gates. When the gates were opened, the force of the crowd pushed those in front down the areaway, which caused a pile-up that ultimately killed 20 people, three-quarters being between the ages of 12 and 18.[10][11]
19 women and children were killed in a crowd crush and resulting stairs collapse in a synagogue in during the fast of Yom Kippur. A failure of the gas lighting plunged a synagogue balcony (apparently, the women's gallery) into darkness, causing panic among the women.[12]
Dozens of others injured after a woman tripped on the stairway of the Brooklyn Bridge, which had been open for eight days at the time. The crush was exacerbated by fears the bridge was about to collapse.[14]
183 children aged between 3 and 14 were crushed when over 1,100 children surged down a blocked stairway to collect gifts from the entertainers after the end of a variety show.
One rescue worker, two teachers, and 172 children between the ages of five and fifteen were killed. Most of the children were killed in a stairwell when some were trying to escape down the stairs while others, who had found escape impossible that way, were trying to flee up the stairs.
Following a bomb attack during World War I, Parisians tried to enter the Bolivar metro station, but the gates down the stairs only opened to the outside. The first rows of the crowd were crushed or suffocated by those behind them.[17][18]
A crowd of about 10,000 saying farewell to 750 recruits of the Imperial Japanese Navy collapsed at the bottom of a stairway from a viaduct leading over the tracks down to the platform. The number far exceeded the station's capacity.[19]
Thousands rushed to the Shiba Ti Tunnel bomb shelter during the Japanese Bombing of Chongqing in the Second Sino-Japanese War and were locked from the outside. Crowding and lack of oxygen caused a stampede to get out, crushing many.[20]
Crowd crush during an attack by the RAF Bomber Command in World War II as they made their way into Galleria delle Grazie, a railway tunnel used as an air-raid shelter. Rushing down the 150 steps leading underground into the shelter, people fell on top of one another.[21]
People were entering the station during an air-raid alert during World War II, and a woman holding a child lost her footing and fell down the stairs, leading to the crowd falling around her in a crush.
A fire broke out at a performance of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Many died after being trampled by other spectators, with some asphyxiating underneath the piles of people who fell over each other. Most of the dead were found in piles, some three bodies deep, at the most congested exits. A small number of people were found alive at the bottoms of these piles, protected by the bodies on top of them when the burning big top ultimately fell down.
At an FA Cup Quarter-final between Bolton Wanderers and Stoke City, the collapse of two crash barriers in an overcrowded stand led to the crowd falling forward upon each other.
Occurred when someone shouted "Fire!" in the Basilica of St. Teresa. 40 people were arrested in connection with the crush.[22][23][24] Two men who were arrested on the day of the crush were released. The panic started when an elderly devotee brushed against the veil which was holding candles in the head, making a small fire that alarmed those responsible for the panic.[25]
Occurred two days before the Lunar New Year when many people were returning to their hometowns. About 3,900 people, more than three times the average crowd, flocked to the ticket gate, where 200 tickets were sold for a train with a capacity of 80 people.[28]
Fans disputing a referee's decision during a match between Peru and Argentina began a pitch invasion, with police firing tear gas canisters into one of the grandstands to prevent more fans from invading the field, causing panic so that departing spectators moved down the enclosed stairways, pressing those in the lead against solid corrugated steel shutters at the bottom of tunnels, which were closed. The shutters finally burst outward from pressure of the crush of bodies inside. All deaths occurred in the jammed stairwells, mostly from internal haemorrhaging by crushing pressure, or by asphyxia. An additional 500 people were injured, many critically.[29]
Fans were caught in a crush at the bottom of the stairs leaving through Gate 12 (Puerta 12 in Spanish) of El Monumental Stadium after a derby between River Plate and Boca Juniors. The exact cause for this crush is not certain, though rival fans might have been throwing burning paper, causing a panic. Other accounts say that the gate was closed, either by police or by other fans, intentionally or unintentionally. Still others argue that it was a simple matter of too many fans going through a gate that was narrower than the staircase leading to it. The disaster remains the deadliest sports-related event in Argentine history.
Crush at a football match between Kayserispor and Sivasspor, which injured hundreds more. It was the worst instance of sports-related violence in Turkey.[30]
Stairway barriers collapsed after someone fell as fans were leaving the Ibrox Stadium following a match between Rangers and Celtic, leading to a crush. Many children also died in the disaster, and most of the deaths were caused by compressive asphyxia, with bodies being stacked up to six feet deep in the area. More than 200 others were injured.
Crush after a friendly hockey match at the Sokolniki Sports Palace between the Soviet junior national team and the Canadian junior team Barrie Co-op. 25 others were wounded.
On the 10th day of Pope John Paul II's visit to Brazil, in an effort to get good seats, the crowd at the Castelao Stadium broke down an unguarded gate and trampled those killed in the rush.[32][33]
While some fans were exiting the stadium after a match between Olympiacos and AEK Athens, some lost their balance and fell on the last steps; soon dozens fell onto each other and were stepped over by a horde of unsuspecting fans who kept coming. 19 people died at the scene, while two more died of their wounds in hospital. At least 55 were wounded.
A crush began at a UEFA Cup match between FC Spartak Moscow and HFC Haarlem at Luzhniki Stadium after a person fell and a dense moving crowd, their direction limited by metal banisters, pushed over the fallen, crushing them. Others stumbled over the bodies in a domino effect creating a large chain-reaction pile-up of people.[34]
A crush triggered by a wall that collapsed after fans escaping a confrontation between competing fan groups were pressed against it in the stadium before the start of the 1985 European Cup Final between Liverpool and Juventus. 600 were injured, and the disaster was later described as "the darkest hour in the history of the UEFA competitions".[35]
At around 7 a.m., children rushed out of their classrooms at Chengguan Primary School after a bell called all pupils to attend a weekly school assembly on the sports field. One metal door at one end of the building was locked, causing the children from all 18 classes to rush down an unlighted stairwell to the only other exit, and some in the front fell over.[36][37]
Football fans at Dasarath Rangasala Stadium attending a Tribhuvan Challenge Shield match between Janakpur Cigarette Factory and Bangladeshi side Liberation Army surged towards the only cover during a hailstorm. The crowd was beaten back by police, but when they returned to the south terrace, a crush developed in a tunnel exit through the terrace and could not escape because the stadium doors were locked, causing a fatal crush at the front of the crowd. 100 more were injured.
97 people died and 766 were injured at Hillsborough Stadium during an FA Cup match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest. The intensity of the crush broke the barriers on the terraces, while those trapped were packed so tightly in the pens that many victims died of compressive asphyxia while still standing. The 1990 official inquiry concluded that the primary cause was the failure of police control, as too many people were let into the stadium. A 2012 reinvestigation concluded that crowd safety was compromised at every level by lack of police control.
Crush as millions flocked to the coffin of Ayatollah Khomeini as it was being moved through downtown Tehran, forcing the military to transport the body to Behesht-e Zahra cemetery using a helicopter.
A blockage at an exit of a pedestrian tunnel (Al-Ma'aisim tunnel) leading out from Mecca towards Mina and the Plains of Arafat led to deaths by suffocation of many religious pilgrims while they were traveling to perform the Stoning of the Devil ritual during the Hajj.
Crush at a football match between Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates attended by about 30,000 fans in a stadium with a capacity for 23,000. When brawls broke out, people panicked, and trying to escape, were crushed against riot-control fences in the melee.
An additional 55 religious pilgrims were injured after being overwhelmed by a crowd trying to enter the atrium of the sanctuary church to receive the divine signal from the ashes. The crowd pushed on for access to the atrium, with most of the dead and injured being trampled.[38]
Large crowds of unknown size arrived in Yingze Park to see lanterns at a light festival. Crowds moving in opposite directions were crossing a poorly lit bridge. Some fell into the water and were drowned; others were killed in the crowd collapse and crush on the west side of the bridge. In all, 105 people were killed and 108 more were injured.[39][40]
At an oversold charity basketball game featuring rap stars, 29 others were injured while entering an overcrowded gymnasium while funneling through a small stairwell area at the City College of New York.[41]
67 others injured as a crowd of 15,000 to 20,000 revelers celebrated New Year's Eve in the city's nightclub district, controlled by 118 police officers. The victims were mostly teenagers and people in their 20s. The Independent reported witnesses as saying it was impossible to distinguish between the yelps of the partying crowd and the victims' agonized screams.[42][43][44]
Gowari people in a political protest, mostly women and children, perished in a crush triggered by cane-wielding police who attempted to prevent the estimated crowd of 40,000 from pressing towards the Vidan Bhavan. 500 others were injured.
A fire at a nightclub filled beyond capacity led to a crush at the only exit, whose doors opened inward. Many of the bodies were discovered along the corridor leading to the exit, piled up waist-high.[45]
147 others were injured on the steep stairway of Estadio Mateo Flores prior to a World Cup qualifying match between Guatemala and Costa Rica. The crowd was estimated at 50,000 in the stadium designed to seat 37,500.
118
9 April 1998
Unnamed
Saudi Arabia
Mecca
Hajj pilgrims were trampled to death, 180 more injured in an incident on the Jamarat Bridge.[46]
When a landslide caused a cave-in during a Hindu pilgrimage on the day of Makara Jyothi, panic ensued and 200,000 male devotees panicked as the hill upon which they stood collapsed into the temple. The BBC reported that "Some of the dead were buried in the collapse, but most died in a stampede to avoid the landslide."[47]
A sudden thunderstorm caused a number of young people to race for nearby shelter during an open-air concert. The crowd was funneled toward the underpass of the Nyamiha metro station and many were killed when they started slipping on the wet pavement, falling and trampling each other.
"Severe crowd accumulation" at one exit of Bergisel Stadium went unnoticed. Darkness, a steep slope and a slippery surface were contributing factors, but "panic did not occur at any time." Four others were left in a vegetative state, and 38 were injured.[48]
Occurred as members of the crowd were crushed against the stage during a performance by Pearl Jam. Another 26 people were injured, 3 of them seriously.
Spectators at a World Cup qualifier between Zimbabwe and South Africa died trying to leave the National Sports Stadium after police fired tear gas to control the crowd.[51]
Pyrotechnics used during a show ignited rubber foam used to soundproof the ceiling, setting the entire club ablaze in minutes. The main entrance was only accessible through a narrow hall where most of the crush occurred.
425 others injured at the Chamunda Devi temple in a panic caused by a rumor that a bomb was planted in the temple complex.[69] Local authorities, however, blamed steep, slippery slopes leading to the temple.[70]
7 boys and one girl aged between 11 and 14 years old were killed and 26 injured in result of a crush in Yucai Middle School. 52 evening classes were dismissed at the same time, and the crush occurred when most of the students tried to exit down the same stairwell. It was raining outside, and that particular stairwell was closest to the dormitories.[74]
Crush occurred during Chhath Puja at the Adalat Ganj area ghat. At least 20 more were also injured, several critically. While it was originally believed that a collapsed bamboo bridge was the cause, later investigations determined that electricity being cut to the ghat was what led to panic.[80][81]
168 others injured as a result of a nightclub fire. According to local authorities the fire began on stage after members of the band flared a pyrotechnic device that ignited flammable acoustic foam in the ceiling. Other reasons for the high death toll included the lack of emergency exits and the excessive number of people present.[84]
Shortly after a vigil at the Holy Ghost Adoration Center, 200 others injured in a crush on one of the narrow roads leading out of the town, though the center was over capacity.[88][89][90]
At least 40 more were injured, when crowds coming to mourn Muslim spiritual leader Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin became trapped against a gate at his residence.[92]
Up to 24 recruits were killed and more than 119 were injured at several stadiums and other venues across Nigeria when 520,000 applicants were invited to take the aptitude test and physical exercises in order to get one of 4,556 available positions with the Nigerian Immigration Service. As many as one million might have shown up for the event at one of its 37 sites. In many cases, security forces fired their rifles into the air for crowd control, which triggered deadly panics. In at least one location the release of teargas had the same effect. In several locations there was no effective queuing, and all candidates had to enter the stadium through a single door.[93][94]
40 others injured as a result of a crush at Ibn-e-Qasim Bagh Stadium after a speech of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party chairman, Imran Khan. The latter alleged that only two gates of the venue were opened at the end of the rally and the lights were also switched off, but this was later denied by the DCO and local authorities.[100]
Pilgrims died in a crush on the banks of the Godavari River. The Hindu pilgrims had gathered to take a dip in the river at the start of the Maha Pushkaralu festival.[108]
Girls aged ten to fifteen were killed and another 42 were injured in a crush on a stairway while trying to escape the school during the 2015 Hindu Kush earthquake.[112][113]
Occurred during the annual thanksgiving festival of the Oromo people after police confronted protesters during the 2016 Ethiopian protests, resulting in a crush.[114] The opposition political party Oromo Federalist Congress, claimed the number of people confirmed dead was 678. While the government claimed only tear gas and rubber bullets were fired by security forces on the ground as well as from the helicopter, eyewitness as well as some videos allegedly from the scene show security forces firing what seemed to be live rounds of ammunition.
Occurred near the Rajghat Bridge when many times the expected number of people were heading towards a religious retreat, causing a crush, and later a stampede due to rumors that the bridge had collapsed.[115][116]
At least 50 more injured during a funeral ritual for former mayor A.B.M. Mohiuddin Chowdhury when people tried to rush down a sloped gateway into the Rima Community Center.[128]
10
14 May 2018
A further 50 were injured in a crush while collecting alms before Ramadan.[129]
101 more injured in a crush before a concert on the country's 59th Independence Day at the Mahamasina Municipal Stadium. The show was about to start and people believed they could enter the stadium and began to push, but the police left the doors closed.[132]
Sixteen more injured in crush at a church when more than 4,500 attendees were being ushered through an exit so that they could walk on "anointed oil" during a prayer meeting[137]
Many more injured in a crowd crush at a stadium, after thousands of people gathered to apply for permits to Pakistan when visa applications resumed after a seven-month pause due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Eleven of the dead were women.[142][143]
150 others injured at the annual Meron pilgrimage during Lag BaOmer. Organizers estimated that 100,000 people, the vast majority of whom were Ultra-Orthodox Jews, arrived on the night of 29 April.[144][145]
Numerous others injured in a crowd surge at the Astroworld Festival hosted by rapper Travis Scott at NRG Park. 300 people were treated for injuries, and 11 people suffered cardiac arrest.[147]
Crush at a charity event at Port Harcourt Polo Club organised by Kings Assembly Pentecostal Church. Hundreds of people who had arrived hoping to receive free food and clothing broke through a fence, causing a panic.[150][151]
Crush at a narrow alley in the Itaewon district during Halloween celebrations; at least 172 more people were injured.[155][156][157] In December 2022, the death of one survivor from suicide was ruled by authorities to have been caused by the disaster, legally declaring him the 159th victim.[158]
Armed Houthis fired into the air in an attempt at crowd control during a Ramadan charity distribution event and hit an electrical wire, which exploded and caused panic among those waiting. More than 300 others were injured.[163][164]
During a Primera División football match between Alianza F.C. and C.D. FAS, fans tried to enter Estadio Cuscatlán after the gates had been closed, leading to a crush after they overran the barricades. More than 500 others were injured.[165]
During the opening of the 11th Indian Ocean Island Games a crush occurred at the Barea Stadium’s C5 gate as people tried to enter the already full stadium resulting in more than 80 other injuries.[166]
Crush believed to have been caused by a clash between a flower vendor and Hindu worshippers at the Baba Siddhnath Temple. At least ten others were injured.[171]
A nearby explosion at an electricity transformer caused a stampede at a high school where around 6,000 students from five different schools where taking the baccalaureate exam. More than 280 were injured.[181]
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^'The Class of People who Go To The Gallery' "Special Report of the Fire Marshall" in Papers Relating to the Burning Down of the Brooklyn Theatre British House of Commons London: 1877. p. 15
^Wagner, U.; Fälker, A.; Wenzel, V. (January 2013). "Fatal incidents by crowd crush during mass events. (Un)preventable phenomenon?". Der Anaesthesist (in German). 62 (1): 39–46. doi:10.1007/s00101-012-2124-z. PMID23354487.
^순천 돌 가공 공장 지배인 공개 처형 [Public Execution Carried Out on a Stone Processing Plant Manager in Soonchun]. 오늘의 북한소식 (in Korean). gf.or.kr (사단법인 좋은벗들 북한연구소). 17 October 2007. Archived from the original on 2 October 2022. Retrieved 2 October 2022. 워낙 많은 군중이 모이다보니 처형이 끝나고 흩어지면서 사람들에 깔려 6명이 사망하고, 34명이 다치는 사고가 일어났다.
^"Bertambah, korban tragedi Kanjuruhan jadi 135" [Increasing, total casualties of Kanjuruhan tragedy reaches 135]. cnnindonesia.com (in Indonesian). 24 October 2022. Retrieved 24 October 2022.
^Soon-hyun, I. (30 October 2022). "[이태원 참사] 경찰 "사망자 154명...153명 신원 확인"" [[Itaewon disaster] Police "Identification of 154 dead...153 confirmed"] (in Korean). News Naver. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
