Rock frenzy kills 11

Press, 5 December 1979, Page 1

Rock frenzy kills 11

NZPA Cincinnati A crowd stampeded as they arrived for a rock concert by the British rock group. The Who, last night. The Fire Chief (Mr B. Lugananni) said at least 11 people were killed in the crush while others were reported injured. Officials said they could not explain why the crowd panicked as they went into the Riverfront Coliseum for the concert. Police and Fire Department ambulances took the injured to at least four Cincinnati hospitals. The Ci-

ncinnati director of public safety (Mr R. Castellini) said the victims were apparently trampled or suffocated. The Who is one of the oldest surviving British rock groups. Its music is featured in the recently released film “Quadrophenia.” The group wrote the rock opera, “Tommy,” which also became a movie. An usher said the crowd surged into the 17,000-seat Riverfront Coliseum just before the gates were to open at 7 p.m.

“First, a bottle was thrown through a window in the door. Then they pushed through the hole, making it bigger. Three or four of us tried to hold them back, but it was no use,” he said. “We couldn’t hold them back ... they carried in one boy and laid him on a table and he died. Others were lying out on the plaza,” said the usher. The concert, which was sold out, went on as scheduled after the dead and injured were removed.

One concertgoer, Michael Jordan, aged 17, said: “I was in the middle. It was crazy. You had to fight to save your life.” Suzanne Sudrack, aged 15, said: “You could see people getting hurt. People were flailing elbows and smashing noses. You could see people going down.” Another youth said, “It was a frenzy. People w r ere trampling over people to get in. They knew there were kids on the ground but they just kept driving forward.”