#dead #dozens #injured #stands #collapse #Colombian #bullring
At least four people were killed and another 30 seriously injured on Sunday when the stands of a bullring in Colombia collapsed during a popular event where the public confronts small bulls, officials said.
“At the moment four people are dead – two women, a man and a child,” Tolima Department Governor Jose Ricardo Orozco told local radio after the incident in downtown El Espinal.
A full three-story stretch of wooden grandstands full of spectators collapsed, throwing dozens of people to the ground, images circulating on social media showed.
Another video captured by someone at the scene showed people trying to flee the stands while a bull continued to roam the arena.
“There are about 30 seriously injured … this is a preliminary report,” Orozco said, noting that rescue workers were still evacuating the wounded to area hospitals for treatment.
Local civil defense officer Luis Fernando Velez said they didn’t know how many people were still buried under the rubble, but noted that the grandstand area was full when it collapsed.
The event was part of celebrations surrounding the San Pedro Festival, the most popular in the region.
“We will request an investigation into the facts of what happened,” outgoing Colombian President Ivan Duque said on Twitter, expressing his solidarity with the families of those killed and injured.
Orozco said the department’s government will work to ban the so-called “corralejas,” where local residents try their luck in the ring, saying they are dangerous and encourage cruelty to animals.
On Saturday, several people were injured in accidents in the Corralejas in El Espinal, home to about 78,000 people and which is about 150 kilometers from the capital Bogotá.
Another person died earlier this month after being speared by a bull during a corraleja in the town of Repelon.
President-elect Gustavo Petro, who will take office on August 7, joined Orozco in calling for the ban on amateur bullfighting.
When he was mayor of Bogota, Leftist Petro stopped bullfighting in the city’s famous bullring, La Santamaria.
While animal cruelty is a crime in Colombia, bullfighting and cockfighting are protected because of the cultural history behind them.
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