"A loudspeaker announcement in German urged visitors to leave the festival without any explanation, leading to additional confusion. Some visitors later complained on social media about how they felt trapped in the crowd. "It was close to mass panic," one woman wrote on Instagram, saying she feared being "trampled to death and knocked over." Another described the situation as "extremely dangerous," with people screaming and crying."
"Tents at Oktoberfest or on the Wiesn, as the festival is locally known operate in two shifts; the day shift and the evening shift. The switch usually takes place at 5 p.m. The bottlenecks were caused by too many people trying to enter and exit the tents at the same time. According to a Munich city spokeswoman, at around 5 p.m. there were some 300,000 visitors on the Theresienwiese festival grounds."
"That's why the entrances were temporarily closed, until visitors who were already on site had found their new spots in the tents. Subways coming from the city center didn't stop at the Theresienwiese station during the closure, and the police made an announcement on social media: "Please avoid visiting Oktoberfest at this time.""
Entrances to Munich's Oktoberfest were temporarily closed for about 30 minutes after a surge of visitors caused severe bottlenecks and crowding. A loudspeaker announcement urged people to leave, and many attendees later reported feeling trapped, with some describing near-panic and fearing being trampled; two people received treatment for panic attacks though no injuries were reported. The surge coincided with the routine 5 p.m. shift change between day and evening sessions in the tents, when too many people attempted to enter and exit simultaneously. Subways bypassed the Theresienwiese station during the closure and police advised the public to avoid the festival temporarily.
Read at www.dw.com
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