Thursday August 7 5:21 PM EDT
Peru Concert Death Toll Rises Amid Outrage
LIMA (Reuter) - The death toll from a chaotic open-air concert in Lima rose to three Thursday when a 19-year-old fan died from brain damage caused by asphyxiation, hospital officials said.
Walter Sinchi Toribio's death at a Lima hospital followed the deaths of two teen-age girls during Tuesday night's concert, where scenes of hysteria and panic among the 100,000-plus crowd left 106 concert-goers injured.
The tragedy brought a tide of outrage in Peru against both the concert organizers and Venezuelan musical duo Servando y Florentino, who have a big following among young fans.
"No forgiveness!" thundered Lima daily La Republica against the teen singers, who left Lima for New York to work on a new record just hours after the fatal show.
Peru's government has begun an investigation into allegations that the organizers at Lima's Home Show park over-sold the venue's 40,000 capacity, and that the singers ignored efforts to stop the event.
Some of the injured were crushed, while others fainted, fell and were trampled on. Television footage of the concert showed girls waving underwear, screaming hysterically and being carried out on stretchers.
Servando y Florentino, who are stars of the salsa genre -- a Latin American dance music of Afro-Cuban and Puerto Rican origin -- have been mobbed by tens of thousands of young fans on every stop of their three tours to Peru this year.
Reuters/Variety