BOGOTÁ, Colombia — At the least six individuals have been killed and greater than 100 injured Sunday when picket spectator stands at a bullfighting pageant collapsed, sending individuals operating for security.
The collapse happened in El Espinal, a metropolis of 75,000 about 95 miles southwest of the capital, Bogotá, at a corraleja, a pageant wherein the general public is invited to interact the bulls, even using or taunting them. It’s extra casual than the normal Spanish bullfight, and the bull is just not killed ultimately.
Amongst these killed Sunday was a 1-year-old baby, in line with native media, which additionally reported that the bull had escaped and was operating free within the streets.
One metropolis councilman known as on close by hospitals and ambulance companies for help, with El Espinal’s personal in a short time overwhelmed.
Colombia’s president-elect, Gustavo Petro, expressed his condolences Sunday afternoon, and famous that his nation had skilled related disasters earlier than. In 1980, spectator stands collapsed within the northern metropolis of Sincelejo, killing a whole bunch. Overcrowding and poor development have been later blamed.
“This has occurred earlier than, in Sincelejo,” Mr. Petro said on Twitter. “I ask the mayor’s workplace to not authorize any extra spectacles with the dying of individuals or animals.”
The follow has confronted many authorized challenges all through the years and has been intermittently banned in components of the nation over considerations about cruelty to animals and hazard to spectators.
In 1989, stands collapsed in Honda, a city exterior Bogotá, killing eight and injuring 200. In 2006, the same incident injured dozens in a city not removed from El Espinal. And in 2013, a bull attacked spectators within the northern city of Arjona, killing two males.
Mr. Petro banned the follow in Bogotá when he served as mayor in 2012, however the subject has since been left in authorized limbo by the nation’s constitutional courtroom.
Colombia’s departing president, Iván Duque, pledged help.
“We are going to ask for an investigation of the info, speedy restoration to the injured and solidarity with the households of the victims,” he mentioned.
