Madrid, Europe Brief News – High winds caused chaos at a music festival near Valencia, Spain, leaving one dead and dozens others injured.
Video obtained from the event shows people battling huge gusts of sandstorm-like wind that obscured much of the surrounding area.
The festival, which had attracted tens of thousands of visitors, was canceled following the storm.
“It was a tense few minutes. I’ve never experienced anything like it before,” DJ Miguel Serna, who was performing at the time, wrote on Instagram.
“The tragedy happened just at the end of my session on the main stage, just below it, which was the most affected (area). It was a few moments of horror, I am still in shock.”
“We are completely devastated and saddened at what happened this morning,” organizers said earlier on the festival’s Facebook page.
Authorities are now looking to find out whether organizers took the correct safety steps.
Spanish minister of the presidency Felix Bolanos, who is in charge of relations between the government and parliament, said authorities have been ordered to investigate if more could have been done to have prevented the tragedy.
Spain’s meteorological agency, however, said the storm was a relatively rare phenomenon that was difficult to predict. It recorded gusts of winds exceeding 80kmh (50mph) at Alicante airport in the Valencia region.
The City of Cullera has ordered two days of official mourning over the death.
