Hundreds injured as platform collapses into sea at Spain’s Vigo festival

More than 300 people were hurt, nine seriously, after a wooden platform collapsed at a music festival on the northwest coast of Spain on Sunday night.

Mallorcan rapper Rels B was about to begin his performance at O Marisquino Vigo festival when the incident occurred close to midnight, according to The Guardian. Concertgoers suffered broken bones and head injuries after plummeting several feet to the ground, while others fell into the sea.

In a statement released today, the event organisers said that they “deeply regret the accident”, and expressed “solidarity with all the injured and their families, who are now the absolute priority for everyone”.

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They also confirmed that the area around the collapsed platform, part of the existing harbour structure, has been sealed off to allow experts to determine the cause of the accident.

Festivalgoer Alicia Ulloa, 19, told Spanish news site El Confidencial: “Suddenly everyone disappeared and everyone was trampling on everyone else as they tried to escape.

“I was with a group of friends when the people beside us fell, as though something had dragged them down. It’s a miracle it wasn’t worse.”

Another witness, Marcos Rodriguez, told radio station Cadena SER: “People fell in the water, on rocks, on top of each [other], people bleeding. It was horrible. People were screaming and running.”

Vigo city’s mayor, Abel Caballero, said rescue efforts had continued throughout the night, with a team of divers searching for people in the water while firefighters dug others out of the debris. Everyone has now been accounted for, reports CNN.