Snapshots of the breakup quickly went viral on social media. Dozens of people were shown teasing and playing with a wounded bull during a popular event known as the Coralega. suddenly, Three levels of terraces give way, Hundreds of men, women and children are trapped under it. While the people were screaming, some jumped out of their seats and rushed to help, trying to clear wood and other debris aside.
Hector Ortiz, 64, could not believe the scene. “That balcony is about to fall!” shouted a woman next to him. And the Watch the stands begin to collapse one by one, like dominoes.
“After the first balcony collapsed, I pulled the next balcony, and so forth. It was the gate the bulls were going through that stopped the collapse. Otherwise, we would be talking about a much greater tragedy,” Ortiz told the Washington Post.
Each year, the mayor’s office and private parties at El Espinal organize events to celebrate Saint Peter’s Day on June 29. A bullring was erected for the spectacle that arose on the Caribbean coast when Colombia was a Spanish colony. Unlike traditional Spanish bullfighting, bulls are not usually killed in CorralegaAnd the Spectators are invited to run while the animal is still in the ring.
In cities like El Espinal, the event has developed into a popular show.
The bullring was built using jadwa bamboo, and its multiple levels were filled with spectators. “The structure of the gadua bamboo is highly unstable,” said Luis Fernando Velez, head of the regional civil defense agency. “The organizers should have expected that to happen.”
Velez said that 50 volunteers from the Civil Defense are working to transport more than 70 injured people from the bullring to the one town hospital. He also helped firefighters and police. The local health system sent out a ‘red alert’ to the community.
Colombian President Ivan Duque expressed on Twitter his concern about the victims and called for a speedy investigation.
Among the missing, Velez said, were children who were next to their parents in the bullring when the structure collapsed.
Similar incident noted Coralegas Disaster in the Caribbean town of Sensiligo. More than 500 people were killed and more than 2,000 injured in 1980 when temporary stands collapsed there.
“This has already happened before in Sensiligo,” President-elect Gustavo Petro tweeted, who will take office in August. “I am asking the local authorities to refrain from allowing more spectacles as people or animals die.”
Petro sparked outrage as mayor of Bogota when he banned bullfighting. On Sunday he seemed ready to fight the same battle nationwide.
After witnessing the disaster Sunday, Ortiz said: “I think this is the end of the Coralega in Espinal”.
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