Steve Aoki Responds to Death of Three at His Show in Spain
A stampede at a Steve Aoki show in Madrid, Spain last night has left three women dead. Two more fans remain in critical condition after a crowd rush during the Thriller Music Park Halloween event, which also featured Autoerotique and other electronic acts.
Roselle Chen
The show was held at the Madrid Arena, which has a capacity of 12,000. There are conflicting reports about whether or not the show was sold out, but on Twitter, several fans noted that the venue seemed to be dramatically over capacity.
According to Spin:
Around 4 A.M., roughly 50 medical personnel were called to the scene to respond to two victims who were unconscious and in cardiac arrest; when they arrived, they found five people in distress.
Spanish newspaper El País describes injuries due to "trauma by crushing," and perhaps trampling. Continues Spin:
Two of the victims were treated on site and declared dead after 30 minutes of attempted resuscitation; a third died shortly upon arrival at a local hospital. The victims were located in two distinct parts of the crowd, but investigators believe that they were all caught in a single crowd movement that swept through the venue.
According to reports, the stampede was incited by a disturbance among concertgoers. The incident itself occurred when the crowd bottlenecked in an exit tunnel on the lower level of the venue. A witness described the scene to Spin: "People inside were vomiting, fainting--chaos." Reports from other areas of the venue say that ten additional exits were open, and that many fans were not aware of the situation and had no idea the tragedy had taken place.
Aoki has released the following statement:
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