10 Dead in Crush in a Japan CrowdThousands of revelers leaving a fireworks display surged onto a crowded pedestrian bridge in western Japan late Saturday and the crush killed at least 10 people, including several children.About 90 people were injured. At least eight of the dead were children younger than 10; the youngest fatality was a 2-year-old boy, police said. People were packed on the overpass outside the railway station in Akashi, a city about 400 miles southwest of Tokyo, said Masafumi Oshita, police spokesman in Hyogo Prefecture. The crowd was so thick that people couldn't stay on their feet. The 110-yard footbridge is the only route to the station from the beach where the crowd watched the fireworks display, national broadcaster NHK said. The show drew 130,000 people, city official Yasuhiro Tanaka said. The accident came at a high point in the Japanese summer festival season, when thousands throng shrines for raucous celebrations or gather under night skies for fireworks displays. |
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