The death toll after a stampede at a German music festival has risen to 19, with a further 340 people injured.
Overcrowding at the entrance tunnel to the “Love Parade” techno event has been blamed for the tragedy.
At least half of the victims are believed to be young women who were trampled to death.
The festival, which police said drew 1.4 million people, was not immediately cancelled because authorities feared an abrupt halt could spark a second panic.
Music blared out after the stampede and people danced on, unaware of the unfolding tragedy nearby.
Organisers finally called the event off late into the evening after news of the deaths.
“There were piles of injured on the ground, some being resuscitated, others dead and covered with sheets,” said Isabel Schloesser, 18.
“It was way too full in the afternoon, everybody wanted to get in,” she said after leaving the rubble-strewn entrance.
Echoes of a throbbing bass beat could still be heard more than three hours after the crush.
Rescue work was initially hampered by the huge crowds attending the event – one of Europe’s biggest electronic music festivals.
People flocked from all around Europe, most in the 18-25 age bracket.
Police in the industrial Ruhr city of Duisburg in western Germany had tried to close the tunnel entrance about a half an hour before the chaos broke out in late afternoon.
“Apparently some tried to enter the area by climbing a fence along a ramp and then fell,” the head of an emergency task force, Wolfgang Rabe, said on ARD television.
“It is still a presumption at the moment, but this could have caused a panic.”
North Rhine-Westphalia state interior minister Ralf Jaeger arrived at the scene in the evening and said 5,500 police and emergency workers had been mobilised.
German President Christian Wulff expressed sympathy in a statement and Chancellor Angel Merkel sent a message of condolence to the relatives of the victims.
“These young people went to party and instead found death and injury. I am appalled and saddened by so much suffering and pain,” she said.
Authorities put the death toll at 18, with at least 80 more injured, many severely.
No further details were immediately available about the dead, which earlier police reports said included nine women and six men.
A doctor from the nearby Johanniter hospital said some 20 to 30 more people were badly injured.
Police earlier tried to resuscitate some with CPR inside the 200-metre long tunnel.
Live images from WDR television showed thousands of revellers streaming out of the festival towards the main train station as rescue helicopters circled overhead.
The annual event featuring electronic dance music such as House, Trance and Techno, flamboyant outfits and energetic dance moves, was first held in Berlin in 1989.
It aims to promote peace through music.
Internationally, similar Love Parades have taken place in Zurich, San Francisco, Mexico City, Acapulco, Vienna, Cape Town, Tel Aviv, Sydney, Santiago, Rio de Janeiro, Oslo and Budapest.
Organisers could not immediately be reached for comment. Police said an investigation had already begun.
