Images of the wreckage spread rapidly on social networks. This showed that during a popular event known as correlation, dozens of people bullied and played with a wounded bull.. suddenly, allowed three-level stands, traps hundreds of men, women and children under. As people screamed, some jumped out of their seats and ran to help, trying to lift firewood and other debris.
Hector Ortiz, 64, could not believe the story. A woman next to him shouted, “That balcony will fall!” he shouted. and watched as the eight parts began to collapse one after the other like dominoes.
Ortiz told The Washington Post: “After the first balcony collapsed, he pulled his turn, and so on. “It simply came to our notice then. Otherwise, we would be talking about a bigger tragedy. “
Every year, the mayor’s office and private parties in El Espinal organize events to celebrate St. Peter’s Day on June 29. Bullring was set up for a spectacle on the Caribbean coast when Colombia was a Spanish colony. Unlike traditional Spanish bullfighting, bulls are not usually killed in correlation, and spectators are still invited to run with the animal in the ring.
In cities like El Espinal, the event has become a popular show.
His bull pitch was made of gadua bamboo, and many levels were filled with spectators. “The bamboo structure is very unstable,” said Luis Fernando Velez, head of the regional civil defense agency. “The organizers had to anticipate that this could happen.”
Velez said 50 civil defense volunteers were working to transfer the most serious incidents of about 300 injured spectators from a bull field to a city hospital. Firefighters and police also helped. The local health care system has sent a “red warning” to the public.
Colombian President Ivan Duke took to Twitter to express concern about the victims and called for an immediate investigation.
Among the dead was a 14-month-old baby. According to Velez, more than a dozen children were injured, while others went missing and were with their parents when the structure allowed. According to Mayor Juan Carlos Tamayo Salas, there were about 800 people at each of the booths.
The incident was reminiscent of a similar incident corralejas Disaster in the Caribbean city of Sincelejo. In 1980, more than 500 people died and more than 2,000 were injured when temporary stands collapsed.
“It used to happen in Sincelejo” Newly elected President Gustavo Petro wrote on Twitter, who will take office in August. “I urge local authorities to refrain from allowing more performances with the death of people or animals.”
Petro angered the mayor of Bogota, who banned bullfighting. On Sunday, he seemed ready to fight the same battle inside the country.
Ortiz, who witnessed the disaster on Sunday, said: “I think this is the end for corralejas El Espinalda. ”
