Witnesses to a crush which killed more than 40 people at a religious festival at Mount Meron in northern Israel have described their horror seeing people fall and panic spread across the gathering.
The stampede began when large numbers of people trying to exit the site - the celebrations of Lag BaOmer attended by an estimated 100,000 people - thronged a narrow tunnel-like passage, according to witnesses and video footage. People began falling on top of each other near the end of the walkway, as they descended slippery metal stairs, witnesses said.
“Masses of people were pushed into the same corner and a vortex was created,” a man identified only by his first name Dvir, told Israel Army Radio. He described a terrifying sight as the first row of people fell down. He said he was in the next row of people that tripped.
“I felt like I was about to die,” he said.
A man speaking to Hebrew-language newspaper Maariv said: “We were at the entrance, we decided we wanted to get out and then the police blocked the gate, so whoever wanted to get out could not get out, in that hurry we fell on each other, I thought I was going to die. I saw people dead next to me.”
The festival was the first mass religious gathering to be held legally since Israel lifted nearly all Covid restrictions. The country has seen cases plummet since launching one of the world's most successful vaccination campaigns late last year.
Lag BaOmer draws tens of thousands of people, mostly ultra-Orthodox Jews, each year to honor Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, a 2nd century sage and mystic who is buried there. Large crowds traditionally light bonfires, pray and dance as part of the celebrations. This year, media estimated the crowd at about 100,000 people.
Motti Bukchin, spokesman for the Zaka ambulance service, told 103FM about the moments after the disaster: “It was a shocking spectacle. I ran up the stairs, I saw CPR being done everywhere. You see the teams working and everyone is trying to save as many people as possible and you understand the magnitude of the disaster.
“I was the first senior from the ZKA in the place. I went with a doctor and we determined death. CPR everywhere. I am 23 years in the ZKA, I went through disasters, but not of this magnitude.”
Rabbi Yitzchak Batzri, who was present at the event, told Gali Tzahal radio: “A day of joy has become a day of mourning. We saw this great disaster - stop the music immediately and just cry and shout. You see the fear - there is nowhere to run “
Zaki Heller, spokesman for the Magen David Adom rescue service, said 150 people had been hospitalized, with six in critical condition.
Heller told the station "no one had ever dreamed" something like this could happen. "In one moment, we went from a happy event to an immense tragedy," he said.
