Eyewitness accounts: Duisburg stampedeStampede at German Love Parade festival kills 19
At least 19 people have been killed in a stampede at the Love Parade dance music festival in the German city of Duisburg, police have said.
Police had been trying to stop people reaching the parade area because of overcrowding.
But the revellers panicked at a tunnel entrance. About 100 people were also injured, dozens seriously.
Police and city officials have launched an investigation into what sparked off the disaster.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has sent her condolences to the family and friends of the victims.
"Young people came to party. Instead, there was death and injury. I am aghast and saddened by the sorrow and the pain," she said.
Duisburg Mayor Adolf Sauerland defended security measures for the festival and vowed to hold a full inquiry.
"In the run-up to the event, we worked out a solid security plan with the organisers and everyone involved," he said.
"The investigations that have already been launched must uncover the precise course of events."
'Way too full'
More than one million people were believed to have attended the event.
The stampede occurred at about 1700 local time (1500 GMT).
Duisburg police initially reported 10 deaths but the toll later increased to 19.
At least 10 people were resuscitated at the scene.
Reuters news agency quoted police commissioner Juergen Kieskemper as saying the situation had become "very chaotic".
He said police closed the parade area due to overcrowding. Those trying to get in were told via loudhailer to turn around, but panic broke out.
A number of eyewitnesses say police were warned of a huge crowd build-up and some report seeing dozens of people piled up on one another, the BBC's Tristana Moore in Germany says.
Emergency workers reportedly had difficulty reaching those crushed.
One festival-goer, named Marius, told the Bild newspaper: "There was no escape. People were pressed into the wall. I was afraid I'd die."
Another man told local television: "The pressure from behind become so high that... we couldn't do anything any more. People were just pushed together until they fell over."
Another participant, Isabel Schloesser, told Reuters: "There were piles of injured on the ground, some being resuscitated, others dead and covered with sheets. It was way too full in the afternoon, everybody wanted to get in."
A young woman told Die Welt: "Everywhere you looked, there were people with blue faces.
"My boyfriend pulled me out over the bodies, otherwise we would both have died in there. How can I ever forget those faces? The faces of the dead."
Police closed off an elevated motorway bridge to allow helicopters to land and evacuate victims.
City officials were said to have chosen not to evacuate the grounds of the day-long festival immediately, fearing it might spark more panic.
City spokesman Frank Kopatschek said: "The crisis meeting determined not to stop the event because at the moment there are too many people on the grounds."
Many of those attending appeared unaware of what had happened.
German President Christian Wulff issued a statement saying: "It is terrible that such a catastrophe brought death, suffering and pain to a peaceful festival full of happy young people from many countries."
The event attracts music fans from all over the world, with floats from Brazil, Russia, the Netherlands, Spain and Australia among other nations.
The floats had been expected to parade through the city for 10 hours. Many top international DJs also perform.
The event began in Berlin in 1989 as a peace demonstration and developed into a huge open-air music festival.
Merkel vows 'intensive' probe of Love Parade deaths
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has demanded an "intensive" investigation into the deadly stampede at the Love Parade music festival in Duisburg.
Mrs Merkel said she had been "appalled" by the tragedy, adding that everything must be done to ensure such deaths did not happen again.
The crush outside a tunnel at the entrance of the festival killed 19 people and injured 340 on Saturday.
Survivors have blamed organisers for the deaths.
They said the site was too small and warnings of overcrowding had been ignored.
The organiser of the festival has said there will be no more Love Parades.
German prosecutors have launched a criminal investigation into the disaster.
'Terrible memories'
Speaking in the town of Bayreuth, Mrs Merkel again offered her condolences to the families of those killed and injured, saying the federal administration had offered full support to the North Rhine Westphalia regional government.
She said: "It now needs to be very intensively investigated as to how this happened because the many young people who were delighted to be going to the event have had... terrible memories and we have to do everything to make sure that something like this does not happen again."
Mrs Merkel added: "The organisers have said themselves that they will not hold any more Love Parades but such large events need to be made safe and the federal states of course have the required police forces to do this."
Festival organiser Rainer Schaller appeared with officials at a news conference in Duisburg on Sunday.
He said: "The Love Parade has always been a joyful and peaceful party, but in future would always be overshadowed by yesterday's events.
"Out of respect for the victims, their families and friends, we are going to discontinue the event in the future, and that means the end of the Love Parade."
Duisburg Mayor Adolf Sauerland said that although the question of why the disaster had happened was "absolutely justified and must be answered", he insisted that until the investigation was complete, any apportioning of guilt would be "out of order".
"That would not serve the victims, nor would it serve the families," he said, adding that 16 of the dead had been identified.
A police spokesman later said at least six of the victims were foreigners - from Australia, Italy, the Netherlands, China, Bosnia and Spain. They ranged in age from 20 to 40.
Mr Sauerland said a security plan for the festival had been worked out beforehand "which gave no reason to believe that there would be a problem".
But BBC Berlin correspondent Tristana Moore says critics argued that the organisers and police were not prepared for such huge numbers of visitors and the site itself - an old railway yard - was too small and completely unsuitable.
German media said the festival had drawn about 1.4 million people.
However, the number has been contested. A local official in charge of the emergency response, Wolfgang Rabe, said the site "can hold 300,000 people and it was at no time full".
Spiegel magazine reported on Sunday that the festival only had authorisation for 250,000 revellers.
The head of a major police union, Rainer Wendt, told the Bild newspaper his organisation had warned a year ago that Duisburg was "too narrow, too small to manage the masses of people".
Police said that no-one had died inside the tunnel.
Deputy police chief Detlef von Schmeling said: "Fourteen people died on the metal steps leading away from the tunnel, two on a wall outside the tunnel."
Police had reportedly closed the exit to the tunnel and were telling those trying to get in to turn around when panic broke out, although the exact circumstances of the stampede are still not clear.
Eyewitnesses claimed they had tried to warn police before the stampede occurred that the tunnel was overcrowded, but said the authorities ignored their warnings.
One Duisburg resident, who lit a candle at a tribute site on Sunday, said: "This is such a shame for the city of Duisburg. Who gave a licence for this sort of planning? Heads should roll."
Leading his Angelus prayer at his summer residence outside Rome, Pope Benedict XVI, who is German, expressed "deep sorrow" over the deaths.
"I remember in my prayers the young people who lost their lives," he said.
Room for 250k people, but actual visiters were estimated between 500k and 1.5 million. Together with a deathtrap entrance and you get 19 deaths and hundreds of wounded. Tragic.
