Victims visit site of Germany's Love Parade tragedy (1st Lead)

Sep 4, 2010, 13:00 GMT

Duisburg, Germany - Victims of Germany's Love Parade tragedy visited the site on Saturday where 21 people died and more than 500 were injured in the crush at a music festival in the western city of Duisburg.

Six weeks after the incident, a bronze commemorative plaque was mounted to a wall near the location where the crush occurred after panic broke out among festivalgoers at an access tunnel.

The victims included people from Italy, China, Australia, Spain, the Netherlands and Bosnia.

One 30-year-old woman said she had been lucky to survive. A girl was crushed to death underneath her.

'You're lying on top and can't do anything,' she said. 'I spoke to her. I could look into her eyes. And then I saw her dying.'

The woman, from Duisburg, said that seven or eight more people had been on top of her, and she fainted shortly afterwards. She ended up needing a seven-hour operation after injuring her leg.

The father of a 16-year-old victim said his daughter was still unable to sleep due to the psychological trauma she suffered after being caught in the crush.

Saturday marked the end of Duisburg's official period of mourning, after which the road and tunnel will reopen to traffic.

An artist is to sound a drum in the tunnel throughout the day, and Duisburg citizens planned to place candles, photos and commemorative items in a glass cube, to remain on site for the coming months.

Separate investigations have in turn blamed Duisburg city authorities, event organizers and the police for lapses in security and planning for the event.