Night club stampede claims 17 lives

Tragedy struck inside a crowded club in Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, when the detonation of a tear gas device caused a stampede leading to the death of no less than 17 people.

Reports say the tear gas device detonated during a middle school graduation party which descended into a brawl and later set off a stampede which claimed scores of lives.

According to Interior and Justice Minister Nestor Reverol, the detonation caused a stampede with people rushing for the exits of the Los Cotorros club in the middle-class neighbourhood of El Paraiso.

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“All I know is my son is dead,” Nilson Guerra, a 43, told local journalists.

The justice minister did not give any motive behind the brawl.

“The establishment has been ordered closed, and we are investigating in coordination with the public ministry, which is directing the criminal investigation,” Reverol said.

He also added that the victims died of suffocation or multiple trauma with eight of those killed younger than 18, while five people who were injured were taken to hospital for treatment.

 

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