MERON (Israel) – Dozens of people were injured, 20 of them critically, after a grandstand collapsed at a Jewish pilgrimage site in the north of Israel, said local rescue services today.
Emergency services and ambulances “are treating dozens of injured” individuals, including “20 patients in a critical state”, said Zaki Heller, spokesman for emergency service Magen David Adom, in a statement.
Tens of thousands of Jews were participating in the annual pilgrimage yesterday for the feast of Lag BaOmer.
After midnight, however, a grandstand collapsed, triggering scenes of panic. Emergency services deployed helicopters to evacuate the injured.
Israeli media published an image of a row of bodies covered in plastic bags on the ground.
The pilgrimage for the feast of Lag BaOmer is staged here around the reputed tomb of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, a second-century Talmudic sage.
Authorities authorised 10,000 people to gather at the site of the tomb, but organisers said more than 650 buses had been chartered from across the country, bringing 30,000 pilgrims in.
Some 5,000 police were deployed to secure the event, the country’s largest public gathering during the Covid-19 pandemic. – AFP, April 30, 2021
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