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Families in Israel have begun burying their loved ones after at least 45 people died in a crush at a crowded Orthodox Jewish festival overnight.
An Ultra-Orthodox Jew mourns at Segula cemetery in Petah Tikva during the funeral of a victim of the Jewish pilgrim tragedy.
Photo: AFP
Some 150 people were also injured at the Lag B Omer festival, near Mount Meron, when people became trapped in an overcrowded passageway.
Funerals were allowed to take place for victims who were positively identified.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised that an inquiry would ensure such a tragedy did not happen again.
Visiting the scene, he said it was one of the worst peacetime disasters the country had known.
âItâs unfathomableâ: Israel mourns after deadly crush at religious festival
Mourners carry the body of Rabbi Eliezer Goldberg, who died during Lag BâOmer celebrations at Mount Meron in northern Israel, at his funeral in Jerusalem. Photograph: Ariel Schalit/AP
Mourners carry the body of Rabbi Eliezer Goldberg, who died during Lag BâOmer celebrations at Mount Meron in northern Israel, at his funeral in Jerusalem. Photograph: Ariel Schalit/AP
People tell of unfolding horror at Mount Meron as inquiry begins into one of the countryâs worst peacetime disasters
Fri 30 Apr 2021 12.12 EDT
Last modified on Sat 1 May 2021 10.01 EDT
âWe started pulling wounded people into the kitchen and treating them. We had no rescue equipment, so we couldnât give them first aid.
âThe police still did not realise that there were many dead. I grabbed a policeman and showed him the bodies, then he realised that something serious was happening.â
Huge numbers
Permission had been given for 10,000 people to attend, but crowds were estimated to be closer to 100,000. Hundreds of buses brought people to the area; some had set up tents in the forests surrounding the tomb.
Such huge numbers led to hours of confusion in the aftermath of the crush. Unable to cope with such massive demand, mobile phone reception briefly crashed. Later, once the bodies of the dead were recovered, the phones in their pockets started ringing, according to a spokesperson for the Zaka, a voluntary medical response group.
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