19 killed in a stampede at the Love Parade in the German city of Duisburg

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(Reuters) - The death toll from a stampede at a "Love Parade" techno music festival in Germany rose to 19 on Sunday and police pursued an investigation into how the mass panic occurred.

Investigators and organisers scheduled a news conference for 1000 GMT on their findings so far regarding Saturday's incident in an entrance tunnel to a former rail station in the west German city of Duisburg where the event was held.

"We are currently working with the organisers and collecting evidence in hopes of reconstructing the events, but it will be labour- and time-intensive," police spokesman Christoph Gilles said by telephone on Sunday.

The festival drew about 1.4 million people from all over Europe, most in the 18-26 age bracket.

Police in the Ruhr industrial city said another festival-goer felled in the stampede died overnight, raising the toll to 19, with 342 people injured.



Duisburg police tried to close the tunnel entrance about a half an hour before the chaos broke out in the late afternoon on Saturday, but panic ensued nonetheless.

"Apparently some tried to enter the area by climbing a fence along a ramp and then fell," the head of an emergency task force, Wolfgang Rabe, told ARD television late on Saturday.

"It is still a presumption at the moment, but this could have caused a panic," he added.

The festival was not immediately cancelled because authorities feared an abrupt halt could spark a second panic.

Music blared out after the stampede and people danced on, unaware of the unfolding tragedy nearby. Organisers finally called the event off in late evening hours after the deaths.

Rescue work was initially hampered by the huge crowds attending one of Europe's biggest electronic music events in fine weather, officials said.Crushed 15 people have died after a stampede at the entrances to the festival of techno music Love Parade to be held in the German city of Duisburg in the west of the country, as reported by the police. The same sources have confirmed that a dozen other people were seriously injured after the stampede. "Initial information indicates that 10 people died and 10 had to be revived and there are more than 15 wounded," he had said the police director, Ralf Klauck, just after the event, in the first count. According to German public television WDR, the number of injured could reach a hundred.

The incident occurred in a pedestrian tunnel leading to the entrance of a former railway station, where they celebrated the festival, which organizers estimate that had gone a million people. Access to the event was closed due to overcrowding, reports the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. According to witnesses, police tried to prevent him getting more people to the site. Some of the people trying to access has dropped pushed by the mass and have been crushed.

Health services could barely cut through the crowd to treat the injured. According to the same newspaper, the festival has not been immediately suspended after the incident and continued to hold some performances. In the north of the site is still listening to the music minutes after the avalanche. The health service spokesman said that until that area of campus news of what happened had not yet arrived.



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Fifteen people have died and 150 more are injured in an avalanche that occurred over an alleged collective panic attack in the tunnel entrance to the macro party which celebrated the 'Love Parade' in Duisburg, western Germany.