The Mawazine stampede occurred on May 23, 2009, at Hay Nahda stadium in Rabat, during the Mawazine music festival. At least 11 people are reported to have died, including 5 women, 4 men, and 2 children. [1]
Eleven people were killed and forty were injured in a stampede at the Hay Nahda soccer stadium during the festival shortly after midnight on 24 May 2009. [2] The incident occurred when spectators attempted to leave in a hurry near the end of a free [3] concert by Moroccan pop star Abdelaziz Stati. [4] A wire fence collapsed during this attempt, endangering the lives of the 70,000 spectators. [2] [4] [5] [6] [7] The concert had begun at 23:00, later than billed, and this caused people attending other concerts, including one by Stevie Wonder, to go to the stadium when their concerts were finished. [3] The event had previously been moved from a smaller venue to meet a demanding crowd. [3]
Most of the injured were young. [3] [8] Eight of the victims were seriously injured. [4] Five of the dead were women, four were men and two were teenagers. [4] [6] They were all discovered after the stampede had completed and found to have been suffocated by crushing. [3] [6] [7] [8] Survivors had to be pulled from the wreckage by rescuers. [2] The dead were all Moroccan. [8] Seven were still in hospital the following day. [6]
Hassan Lamrani, the Governor of Rabat, blamed concert-goers for the stampede, saying that they had "decided to go over the metal barriers to have a quick exit". [2] However, one injured concert-goer questioned why police had shut the doors and had not intervened when the incident had become serious. [2] There were 3,000 police on duty at the event. [3] Maroc Cultures issued a statement to express "its great sorrow", extending "its profound and sincere condolences" to those affected by the tragedy. [3] King Mohammed VI also sent the families of those affected messages of condolence and offered to pay for funeral services and hospital costs. [3] Morocco's interior ministry has announced it will investigate the incident. [3]