Festival closed as storm kills five in Belgium

THE death toll from a fierce storm that ripped tents, uprooted trees and flung multi-storey metal scaffolding towers and racks of concert lights across the grounds of a music festival in Belgium has risen to five, officials say.

Hasselt mayor Hilde Claes said that two more people died yesterday. A total of 73 were injured, eight of them seriously, when the annual Pukkelpop festival was hit by a brief but violent storm on Thursday night. Panicked concert-goers ran through fields of mud seeking shelter as the festival’s infrastructure was destroyed.

The festival, 80km east of Brussels, has now been cancelled, and buses and trains have been pressed into service to transfer the 60,000 festival-goers home.