Subscribe
HipHopWired Featured Video
CLOSE

Five Dead At Pukkelpop Festival

Five people have died following a severe thunderstorm that caused a stage to collapse during the Pukkelpop Festival in Hasselt, Belgium yesterday.

Organizers have canceled the remainder of the music festival, which was set to feature rap acts Eminem, Wiz Khalifa, Odd Future and many other bands this weekend.

According to MSNBC:

The death toll from a fierce thunderstorm that mangled tents and downed trees and scaffolding at an open-air music festival in Belgium has risen to five, officials said Friday.

Hasselt Mayor Hilde Claes said that two more people died overnight. About 40 were injured, 11 of them seriously, she said.

Chicago-based band Smith Westerns was on stage when the structure collapsed around them, NBC station WMAQ reported. None of the band members were injured but their equipment was destroyed.

Organizers canceled the annual Pukkelpop festival near Hasselt, 50 miles east of Brussels. Buses and trains were pressed into service to transfer the 60,000 festivalgoers home.