Israel: 'People were completely crushed' - emergency worker on deadly Meron Stampede

Description

Emergency workers were piling up plastic rubbish and personal belongings, including hats and glasses, left on ground at the Lag B'Omer Jewish festival in Meron on Friday, after at least 44 were killed, and 150 injured in a stampede during the overcrowded gathering. Several pilgrims were seen looking through the objects left on the ground, before workers piled them in large bin bags and took them away from the site. "Crushed, people were completely crushed. Here all this area was full of people who were crushed," said Eli Polack, head of a local emergency group. During the stampede, which involved a structure collapsing at the festival, several people slipped, causing dozens more to fall as a consequence. Authorities evacuated the festival and a field hospital was set-up on site, while dozens of ambulances and six helicopter evacuated the injured. "It was not possible to pull out so many people from this narrow passage," explained Eli Polack. 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.'