Videos captured the moments of a stadium collapsing during a bullfighting event in Colombia, killing 4 people and injuring hundreds.
The first video, filmed from a drone, shows the wrestling arena in El Espinal, central Colombia, where the incident took place on Sunday.
In the middle of the arena, a raging bull and a large number of people descended on the arena floor, suddenly part of the right side of the runway collapsed, and then chaos erupted.
Imágenes de la tragedia desde un dron ,ocurrido en espinal Tolima !! pic.twitter.com/u87za1WIXX
— WILMER Pacheco Trujillo (@JoseWilmerPache) June 26, 2022
In other shots, I recorded from another side of the runway, how the four-tier stands were filled to the brim.
It appears from the video that the collapse was quick and sudden in the wooden runway, and screams were raised in terror from the sudden event.
#BREAKING: 2 dead, dozens injured, after makeshift bleachers collapsed at a bullfighting event in El Espinal, in central Columbia.
📍Distressing footage pic.twitter.com/dZbXHReBdu
— Moshe Schwartz (@YWNReporter) June 26, 2022
“There are four dead at the moment, two women, a man and a child,” Tolima Provincial Governor Jose Ricardo Orosco told local radio after the incident in the city of El Espinal.
And the region’s hospitals stated that they were treating about 322 wounded, including 4 in intensive care, according to what Marta Palacios, the health official in Tolima, explained, according to “AFP”.
The accident occurred during a local bull show, a popular event in which the public takes to the ring to confront cows and young bulls.
“We are still waiting to know how many people are still trapped under the rubble. As you can see from the footage, the wing in question was full of people when it collapsed,” said Luis Fernando Felice, director of civil defense in Tolima.
Another video showed a number of people trying to get out of the wooden and steel rubble while a bull was still roaming the track.
The accident occurred at the Circuit Gilberto Chari during the San Pedro Day festivities, the most popular in the region.
“We will demand an investigation (..) and we stand in solidarity with the families of the victims,” Colombian President Ivan Duque said.
And Arosco warned that he would ask “all celebrations like this to be suspended”, stressing that they “harm the lives of animals” and help “to mistreat them.”
On the eve of the accident, several people were injured by bull attacks during the same celebrations in El Espinal, which has a population of about 78,000, located 150 kilometers southwest of Bogota.
Colombian President-elect Gustavo Pedro tweeted, “I ask the municipalities to no longer allow performances that may involve the killing of people or animals,” recalling the killing of hundreds of people at another arena in the northern city of Sinselejo in 1980.