Five die awaiting Chicago band when Belgian stage collapses

BRUSSELS - A storm swept through a popular open-air music festival in this town in eastern Belgium on Thursday, killing at leas f ive people and injuring more than 70 others, an official said.

Ambulances and police cars raced to and from the site of the Pukkelpop festival, near the town of Hasselt, 50 miles east of Brussels, late Thursday, their sirens blaring. Concertgoers described scenes of panic as the sky darkened, the winds whipped, rain poured, hailstones nearly half an inch (larger than 1 centimeter) across pelted the crowds, and concert structures buckled.

"It was frightening. It looked terrible. All the structures collapsed," said Brinnie Gardner, 20, of Aukland, New Zealand, who is on a tour of Europe with a friend. "There was panic. It was crazy."

Hugo Simons, Hasselt's head of emergency medical planning, told VRT radio that three people had died, 11 had been severely injured and 60 had sustained light injuries as a result of the storm.

Organizers estimated that 60,000 people were at the three-day festival, which started Thursday, when the storm broke. Many were streaming out of the grounds after the storm, which turned the festival site into a scene of mud and destruction within about 10 minutes.

Video from the site showed stage equipment dangling in high winds as rain-soaked concertgoers at the music festival ran for cover. Trees and branches all around the area were downed, evidence of the sudden ferocity of the winds.

Ambulances ferried the seriously injured to nearby hospitals. Some of those lightly injured were being treated at a local sports complex. More than 20 ambulances were dispatched to the festival ground.

Images of the disaster showed fallen lighting scaffolds. Dutch NOS television reporter Rick Hoogkamp, who was attending the concert Thursday, said several tents collapsed. An AP reporter saw concession stands blown down and a large food tent spread across the ground.

One of those who watched a tent collapse was Laura Elegeert, 17, of Saint-Nicolas, Belgium.

"It was utter confusion, mass panic," Elegeert said. "People were trying to get out of this tent that collapsed by using their pocket knives and cutting holes in the fabric."

Two cranes were brought in to try to lift the large tent late Thursday, but the ground appeared too swamped for them to reach the area.

Chokri Mahassine, the organizer of the festival, said, "We have for now put the festival on hold until we understand the situation completely."

The three-day festival's lineup features internationally known acts, including Foo Fighters, Eminem and The Offspring.

This was the second deadly incident at an outdoor festival in a week. On Saturday, parts of a stage collapsed at the Indiana State Fair in Indianapolis, killing five people and injuring dozens when winds of 60 to 70 miles per hour (95 to 112 kilometers per hour) hit the site.

Last month, a German woman died in a 30-meter (100-foot) fall from a tower at the Roskilde music festival in Denmark, but police said she likely committed suicide.

In 2000, nine people were crushed to death and 43 injured at the same festival during a Pearl Jam concert.

Chicago indie rockers the Smith Westerns had played one number when its manager yelled at the group to exit the stage, ABC7 reported this morning. The group allegedly lost all of its equipment in the accident.. Band members were not physically injured.

The DH daily says the storm hit the Pukkelpop festival near the town of Hasselt on Thursday.

The festival's website lists a number of stages where concerts and performances were to be held during the three day event, that started on Thursday.

A "Rolling Stone" article describes the group as a "trio from Chicago who play peppy, glammy power pop in the style of Supergrass, David Bowie and T. Rex.

"The band started when the members - Cullen Omori and Max Kakacek, both 20, and Cameron Omori, 19 - were still in high school.

"Originally I was playing drums," Cullen says. "I started playing guitar and basically taught myself as I went along. I was writing to the best of our abilities as someone who had just started playing guitar."