... amped-up people into a confined area... what could
possibly go wrong?
-- DUISBURG -- Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed shock at the "horrible, sad" turn of events and said everything must be done to ensure such tragedies don't repeat themselves.
"I think we need an intense investigation now into how this happened," she said Sunday in Bayreuth, where she was attending the opening of the yearly Wagner music festival.
"We must do everything to prevent this from being repeated."
Geez Angela... you mean like not letting politicians override the concerns of the emergency services establishment?
Rainer Wendt, the head of a key national police union, told the Bild daily newspaper that the city and organizers are to blame.
"I already warned a year ago that Duisburg is not a suitable place for the Love Parade," Wendt said. "The city is too small and narrow for such events."
A high-ranking firefighter warned the city's mayor in a letter in October 2009 against holding the event at the old freight railway station "because the place is not big enough for all the people," the daily Koelner Stadt-Anzeiger reported.
Funny how that works.
