Estimated Deaths
|
Date
|
Name
|
Nation
|
Place
|
Description
|
115 |
September 19, 1902 |
Shiloh Baptist Church disaster |
USA |
Birmingham, Alabama |
The stampede claimed the lives of people attending a convention featuring Booker T. Washington, following a false fire alarm.
|
602 |
December 30, 1903 |
Iroquois Theatre Fire |
USA |
Chicago, Illinois |
Many people died of crush asphyxiation in the rush to escape.
|
16 |
January 11, 1908 |
Barnsley Public Hall Disaster |
England |
Barnsley, South Yorkshire |
The 16 who died were children.
|
175 |
March 4, 1908 |
Collinwood school fire |
USA |
Collinwood, Ohio |
One rescue worker, two teachers, and 172 children between the ages of five and fifteen were killed. Most of the children were killed in a stairwell when some were trying to escape down the stairs while others, who had found escape impossible that way, were trying to flee up the stairs.
|
73 |
December 24, 1913 |
Italian Hall Disaster |
USA |
Calumet, Michigan |
People were crushed to death, and the event is considered the source for the often-cited legal limit of protected speech, i.e., that one may not falsely shout "Fire!" in a crowded theater.
|
71 |
December 31, 1929 |
Glen Cinema disaster |
Scotland |
Paisley |
The Glen Cinema disaster was caused by a smoking film canister in the cinema. The resulting panic and crush killed 69 children and injured 40; the final death toll was 71.
|
76 |
January 8, 1934 |
Kyoto Railroad Station Tragedy |
Japan |
Kyōto Station |
A crowd of about 10,000 saying farewell to 750 recruits of the Imperial Japanese Navy collapsed at the bottom of a stairway from a viaduct leading over the tracks down to the platform. The number far exceeded the station's capacity.[6]
|
354 |
October 23, 1942 |
unnamed |
Italy |
Genoa |
People were killed by stampede during an attack by the RAF Bomber Command in WWII as they made their way into Galleria delle Grazie, a railway tunnel in use as an air-raid shelter. Rushing down the 150 steps leading underground into the shelter, people fell on top of one another in a crush, accounting for the extremely heavy toll of the stampede.[7]
|
173 |
March 3, 1943 |
Bethnal Green tube station disaster |
England |
London |
People were entering the station during an air-raid alert, and a woman holding a child lost her footing and fell down the stairs, leading to the crowd falling around her in a crush.
|
168 |
June 6, 1944 |
Hartford circus fire |
USA |
Hartford, Connecticut |
A fire broke out at a performance of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, killing between 167 and 169 people. Many died after being trampled by other spectators, with some asphyxiating underneath the piles of people who fell over each other. Most of the dead were found in piles, some three bodies deep, at the most congested exits. A small number of people were found alive at the bottoms of these piles, protected by the bodies on top of them when the burning big top ultimately fell down.
|
33 |
March 9, 1946 |
Burnden Park disaster |
England |
Bolton |
At an FA Cup Quarter-final, people were killed when the collapse of two crash barriers in an overcrowded stand led to the crowd falling forward upon each other.
|
53 |
April 9, 1952 |
unnamed |
Venezuela |
Caracas |
50 people were trampled to death when a "terrorist"[8] or a group of thieves[9] shouted "Fire!" in the Santa Teresa church. 40 People have been arrested in connection of the stampede.[8][10] Two men who were arrested on the day of the stampede were released. Police chief Aníbal Rojas said that the stampede started when an elderly devotee brushed against the veil which was holding candles in head, making a small fire, the small flare made someone believe that a fire spread and give the alarm.[11]
|
500–800 |
February 3, 1954 |
1954 Kumbh Mela stampede |
India |
Kumbh Mela, Allahabad |
A surging crowd broke through the barriers separating them from a procession of sadhus and holy men of various akharas, resulting in a stampede.
|
124 |
January 1, 1956 |
unnamed |
Japan |
Yahiko |
People were killed during the New Year panic and stampede at the Yahiko Shinto shrine in central Niigata.
|
328 |
May 24, 1964 |
Estadio Nacional disaster |
Peru |
Estadio Nacional de Lima |
As of September 2015, the worst disaster in association football history. After a referee's unpopular call, home fans began a pitch invasion and the Peruvian police fired tear gas canisters into one of the grandstands to prevent further fans from invading the field of play, causing panic among attendees who then began a mass exodus. Departing spectators moved down the enclosed stairways, pressing those in the lead against solid corrugated steel shutters at the bottom of tunnels, which were closed. The shutters finally burst outward from pressure of the crush of bodies inside. All of those that died were killed in the jammed stairwells, most from internal haemorrhaging by crushing pressure, or by asphyxia. An additional 500 people were injured, many critically.[12]
|
71 |
June 23, 1968 |
Puerta 12 Tragedy |
Argentina |
El Monumental Stadium, Buenos Aires |
Exiting fans were caught in a crush at the bottom of the stairs leading to Gate 12 (Puerta 12 in Spanish). The exact cause for this crowd collapse is not known for certain, though rival fans might have been throwing burning paper on those exiting, causing an escape panic. Other accounts say that the gate was closed, either by police or by other fans, intentionally or unintentionally. Still others argue that it was a simple matter of too many fans going through a gate that was narrower than the staircase leading to it. The Puerta 12 Tragedy remains the deadliest sports-related event in Argentine history.
|
66 |
January 2, 1971 |
Second Ibrox Disaster |
Scotland |
Ibrox Stadium, Glasgow |
People were killed when the collapse of stairway barriers occurred after someone fell as fans were leaving the stadium, leading to a crush. The tragedy included many children who died, and most of the deaths were caused by compressive asphyxia, with bodies being stacked up to six feet deep in the area. More than 200 others were injured.
|
11 |
December 3, 1979 |
1979 The Who concert disaster |
USA |
Riverfront Coliseum, Cincinnati |
People were killed during a crush at a concert by The Who. The incident led to a reduced use of festival seating at U.S. venues.
|
66 |
October 20, 1982 |
Luzhniki disaster |
Russia, USSR |
Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow |
A crush began after a person fell and a dense moving crowd, their direction limited by metal banisters, pushed over the fallen, crushing them. Others stumbled over the bodies in a domino effect creating a large chain-reaction pile-up of people.[13]
|
39 |
May 29, 1985 |
Heysel Stadium disaster |
Belgium |
Heysel Stadium, Brussels |
The stampede occurred when fans escaping a confrontation between competing fan groups were pressed against a collapsing wall in the stadium before the start of the 1985 European Cup Final. 600 were injured, and the disaster was later described as "the darkest hour in the history of the UEFA competitions".[14]
|
93 |
March 13, 1988 |
Kathmandu stadium disaster |
Nepal |
Dasarath Rangasala Stadium |
People were killed when fans at Nepal's national football stadium stampeded for the exits during a hailstorm. Surging toward the only cover (the west stand), the crowd was beaten back by police, but when they returned to the south terrace, there a crush developed in a tunnel exit through the terrace. The crowd could not escape because the stadium doors were locked, causing a fatal crush at the front of the crowd. 100 more were injured.
|
2 |
August 20, 1988 |
unnamed |
England |
Donington Park |
Fans died during a Guns N' Roses concert at a Monsters of Rock festival where they were crushed to death after a 50-person crowd collapse following a surge, 15 yards from the stage. Rolling Stone reported the band members said they stopped playing several times to try to calm fans.[15] Upon exiting the stage, Axl Rose shouted to fans to have a good day and "... don't kill yourselves," but was unaware of the deaths at the time.[15] The head of concert security, present at the scene, wrote a presentation paper about the event for a seminar on mass crowd events.[16]
|
96 |
April 15, 1989 |
Hillsborough disaster |
England |
Hillsborough Stadium, Sheffield |
In one of the world's worst football disasters, 766 people were injured, in addition to the people who died. The intensity of the crush broke the crush barriers on the terraces, while those trapped were packed so tightly in the pens that many victims died of compressive asphyxia while still standing. The 1990 official inquiry concluded that the primary cause was the failure of police control, as too many people were let into the stadium. On 12 September 2012, the Hillsborough Independent Panel released its own report after a reinvestigation to add to public understanding of the disaster and its aftermath. The panel concluded that crowd safety was compromised at every level by lack of police control.
|
1,426 |
July 2, 1990 |
1990 Mecca tunnel tragedy |
Saudi Arabia |
Mina, Mecca |
A blockage at a pedestrian tunnel exits (Al-Ma'aisim tunnel) leading out from Mecca towards Mina, Saudi Arabia and the Plains of Arafat led to deaths by suffocation of many religious pilgrims while they were traveling to perform the Stoning of the Devil ritual during the Hajj.
|
40 |
January 13, 1991 |
Orkney Stadium Disaster |
South Africa |
Oppenheimer Stadium, Orkney |
People were killed at a football match attended by about 30,000 fans in a stadium with a capacity for 23,000. When brawls broke out, people panicked, and trying to escape, were crushed against riot-control fences in the melee.
|
3 |
January 24, 1991 |
AC/DC Concert Deaths |
United States |
Salt Palace (arena), SLC |
3 People were killed at an AC/DC Concert attended by 13,294 fans in an arena, with 4,400 of those had “festival style seating.”[17] Two 14 year old boys and a 19-year-old woman were crushed to death as the crowd surged toward the stage as the band played "Thunderstruck."[18]
|
42 |
February 13, 1991 |
unnamed |
Mexico |
Chalma sanctuary |
Beyond those who died, an additional 55 religious pilgrims were injured after being overwhelmed by a crowd trying to enter the atrium of the sanctuary church to receive the divine signal from the ashes. The crowd pushed on for access to the atrium, with most the dead and injured being trampled.[19]
|
105 |
September 24, 1991 |
1991 Taiyuan Illumination show stampede (Chinese) |
China |
Jikong Bridge, Shanxi Province |
In a major festival in Taiyuan, China, large crowds of unknown size arrived in Yingze Park to see lanterns at a light festival. Crowds moving in opposite directions were crossing a poorly lit bridge. Some fell into the water and were drowned; others were killed in the crowd collapse and crush on the west side of the bridge. In all, 105 people were killed and 108 more were injured.[20][21]
|
9 |
December 28, 1991 |
unnamed |
USA |
City College New York |
At an oversold charity basketball game featuring rap stars, people were killed and 29 others injured while entering an overcrowded gymnasium while funneling through a small stairwell area.[22]
|
0 |
June 27, 1992 |
unnamed |
Germany |
Olympiastadion, Munich |
More than 500 people were injured when the crowd at Michael Jackson's debut Dangerous concert became hysterical and began rushing at the barriers, causing several people to have to be lifted from the crowd.
|
21 |
January 1, 1993 |
unnamed |
British Hong Kong |
Lan Kwai Fong, Hong Kong |
People were killed and 67 injured as a crowd of 15,000 to 20,000 revellers celebrated New Year's Eve in the Hong Kong night-club district, controlled by 118 police officers. The victims were mostly teenagers and young people in their 20's. The Independent reported witnesses as saying it was impossible to distinguish between the yelps of the partying crowd and the victims' agonized screams.[23][24][25]
|
0 |
October 30, 1993 |
The Camp Randall Crush |
USA |
Camp Randall Stadium, Madison, Wisconsin |
73 student fans were injured by a crowd crush, six critically, when students charged the field in celebration after Wisconsin Badgers football game.
|
270 |
May 23, 1994 |
unnamed |
Saudi Arabia |
Jamarat Bridge, Mecca |
Religious pilgrims were killed and injured during a stampede at the stoning of the Devil ritual.
|
113 |
November 23, 1994 |
1994 Gowari stampede |
India |
Nagpur, Maharashtra |
Gowari people in a political protest, mostly women and children, perished in a stampede triggered by the cane-wielding police who attempted to prevent the estimated crowd of 40,000 from pressing towards the Vidhan Bhavan, Nagpur. 500 more people were injured.
|
83 |
October 16, 1996 |
The October 16 disaster |
Guatemala |
Estadio Mateo Flores, Guatemala City |
In addition to those who died, 147 more people were injured on the steep stadium stairway prior to the World Cup qualifying match. The crowd was estimated at 50,000 in the stadium designed to seat 37,500.
|
0* |
January 1, 1997 |
Hogmanay New Year Celebration |
Scotland |
Edinburgh |
A densely packed crowd of 350,000 gathered in Edinburgh for the annual celebration. Barriers and railings were bent down by crowd pressure. Thirty-four suffered crush and trample injuries, and one was treated for asphyxia. *This event is notable due to the number of crowd injuries and the size of the crowd.[26]
|
118 |
April 9, 1998 |
unnamed |
Saudi Arabia |
Jamarat Bridge, Mecca |
Hajj pilgrims were trampled to death, 180 more injured in an incident on Jamarat Bridge.[27]
|
53 |
January 15, 1999 |
1999 Sabarimala stampede |
India |
Sabarimala shrine, Kerala |
When a landslide caused a cave-in at a temple during a Hindu pilgrimage on the day of Makara Jyothi, panic ensued and 200,000 male devotees stampeded as the hill upon which they stood collapsed into the temple. The BBC reported that "Some of the dead were buried in the collapse, but most died in a stampede to avoid the landslide."[28]
|
53 |
May 30, 1999 |
Nyamiha disaster |
Belarus |
Nemiga metro station, Minsk |
A sudden thunderstorm caused a number of young people to race for nearby shelter during an open-air concert. The stampede was funneled toward the underpass of the metro station and many people were killed in the crush when they started slipping on the wet pavement, falling and trampling each other.
|
6 |
December 4, 1999 |
"Air & Style" crowd crush |
Austria |
Bergisel stadium in Innsbruck |
"Severe crowd accumulation" at one exit went unrecognized. Darkness, a steep slope and a slippery surface were contributing factors, but "panic did not occur at any time." Six were killed, four were left in a vegetative state, and 38 were injured.[29]
|
9 |
June 30, 2000 |
Roskilde Festival disaster |
Denmark |
Roskilde |
Nine people were crushed after falling as the crowd rushed the stage. Another 26 people were injured, 3 of them seriously.
|