ALGIERS - At least 5 people were killed and around 20 were wounded during crowd crush that preceded a music concert of Algerian world star Soolking in Algiers on Thursday night.
According to the official APS news agency, the incident occurred at around 8 p.m. local time (7pm GMT) in front of one of secondary entrances of August 20, 1955 Stadium, where hundreds of fans were thronging to attend the Soolking concert, an event that attracted more than 30,000 spectators.
Ambulances rushed to the site to evacuate the victims to hospitals.
Abdeslam Benana, director of Mustapha Pacha Hospital in downtown Algiers, was quoted by Radio channel 1 as saying that 5 people were killed and 17 others were injured, aging between 17 and 23.
Seven of the injured were rushed to Zmirli Hospital in the southern suburb of El Harrach.
The tragic incident did not interrupt the music concert, which kicked off at around 8:30 p.m. local time as planned and continued for more than four hours. Soolking, whose real name is Abderraouf Draghi, 30, is an Algerian rapper immigrated to France, who was very popular among young Algerians.