Emergency Services Deployed, Revellers Evacuated after 45 killed in Mount Meron

Description

Emergency services were deployed in Mount Meron, Northern Israel, after at least 44 worshippers were killed and 150 injured in a stampede during Lag B'Omer Jewish festivity on Friday morning. Army and police officers can be seen coordinating an evacuation while emergency workers worked at the scene. During the stampede, which involved a structure collapsing at the festival, several people slipped, causing dozens more to fall as a consequence. A field hospital was set-up on site, while dozens of ambulances and six helicopter evacuated the injured. The incident took place as tens of thousands of primarily ultra-Orthodox Jews participated in the annual event, around the tomb of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, a 2nd-century Tannaitic sage. The festival was the largest event taking place in the country since the beginning of the pandemic. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the incident a 'heavy disaster.'