Calls for mayor to resign after festival stampede

THE mayor of the German city of Duisburg resisted calls yesterday to quit after a panicked stampede at the Love Parade music festival left 19 people dead and more than 500 injured.

Authorities had reportedly been warned the western industrial city was too small to host one of Europe’s biggest techno music events, while security arrangements have been slammed as being woefully inadequate.

“If the city is guilty of anything then we will assume responsibility,” Mayor Adolf Sauerland said in a statement. “There are probing and urgent questions that must be answered.”