A stampede broke out early yesterday outside a stadium near Manila where thousands had lined up to watch a popular game show, killing at least 73 people and injuring 359 others, officials said.
About 30,000 people were waiting to get inside the stadium for the program Wowowee when the stampede occurred, said Vicente Eusebio, the mayor of Pasig, a Manila suburb.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque said 73 people were killed, revising a higher death toll reported by authorities due to double counting amid the confusion. At least 359 injured people were taken to 11 hospitals, according to officials.
The mayor said the melee erupted as the crowd pushed and surged toward the gates, thinking they were open, trampling those in front. One survivor said some people in the crowd became rowdy when they could not enter.
"The gates were being partially opened then shut," said Myrna Britania, 42, who spoke at a hospital where the injured were being treated. "The raffle tickets can be obtained at the gate so everyone was in a hurry. There was pushing and people in front of the gate were crushed."
Britania, who had spent all night in line, said "people at the back of the line were pushing not knowing there were already people dead lying on the ground in front."
Eusebio and police denied reports that the stampede was caused by a bomb scare.
Merquieades Salazar cried over the body of his wife, who was among those crushed. Salazar, 45, said the couple was jobless and wanted to try their luck at a raffle with a jackpot of 20,000 pesos (US$384).
"In the desire to win money, she is the one I lost," Salazar sobbed as he stroked his dead wife's hair.
"We both fell and we were both pinned to the ground," he said.
Authorities collected the dead and lined up the bodies on the side of a street outside the stadium for identification as bags and shoes lay scattered outside the hall.
Police Superintendent Gerry Galvan said at least 50 people died at the stadium and the rest at hospitals where they were taken. Soldiers loaded some of the bodies into a truck.
Radio DZBB reported hospitals were overwhelmed with the scores of injured and were using parking lots to accommodate them. The Rizal Medical Center alone was treating 200 people, said Senator Richard Gordon, head of the Red Cross.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo consoled the injured during a visit to the medical center, putting her hands on the shoulders of Leny Subayco, who was waiting for an X-ray of her injured leg.
Subayco said she lost consciousness after being pressed against the stadium gate and woke up later under a pile of people.
"Under me was a dead person, beside me there was another dead and there was another dead above me," she said.
The game show, organized by the ABS-CBN TV network, is extremely popular because it offers big prizes, like cars and money.
Gordon blamed poor organization of the event for the tragedy.
ABS-CBN's executive vice president for entertainment, Charo Santos-Concio, said that the show had been postponed indefinitely.
RESPONSE: The transit sends a message that China’s alignment with other countries would not deter the West from defending freedom of navigation, an academic said Canadian frigate the Ville de Quebec and Australian guided-missile destroyer the Brisbane transited the Taiwan Strait yesterday morning, the first time the two nations have conducted a joint freedom of navigation operation. The Canadian and Australian militaries did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Ministry of National Defense declined to confirm the passage, saying only that Taiwan’s armed forces had deployed surveillance and reconnaissance assets, along with warships and combat aircraft, to safeguard security across the Strait. The two vessels were observed transiting northward along the eastern side of the Taiwan Strait’s median line, with Japan being their most likely destination,
GLOBAL ISSUE: If China annexes Taiwan, ‘it will not stop its expansion there, as it only becomes stronger and has more force to expand further,’ the president said China’s military and diplomatic expansion is not a sole issue for Taiwan, but one that risks world peace, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that Taiwan would stand with the alliance of democratic countries to preserve peace through deterrence. Lai made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). “China is strategically pushing forward to change the international order,” Lai said, adding that China established the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, launched the Belt and Road Initiative, and pushed for yuan internationalization, because it wants to replace the democratic rules-based international
ECONOMIC BOOST: Should the more than 23 million people eligible for the NT$10,000 handouts spend them the same way as in 2023, GDP could rise 0.5 percent, an official said Universal cash handouts of NT$10,000 (US$330) are to be disbursed late next month at the earliest — including to permanent residents and foreign residents married to Taiwanese — pending legislative approval, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. The Executive Yuan yesterday approved the Special Act for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience in Response to International Circumstances (因應國際情勢強化經濟社會及民生國安韌性特別條例). The NT$550 billion special budget includes NT$236 billion for the cash handouts, plus an additional NT$20 billion set aside as reserve funds, expected to be used to support industries. Handouts might begin one month after the bill is promulgated and would be completed within
The National Development Council (NDC) yesterday unveiled details of new regulations that ease restrictions on foreigners working or living in Taiwan, as part of a bid to attract skilled workers from abroad. The regulations, which could go into effect in the first quarter of next year, stem from amendments to the Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及僱用法) passed by lawmakers on Aug. 29. Students categorized as “overseas compatriots” would be allowed to stay and work in Taiwan in the two years after their graduation without obtaining additional permits, doing away with the evaluation process that is currently required,
RSS