Dutch police launch probe into canal side stairs collapse

Police in the Netherlands launched a criminal investigation today into a stairway collapse during a music concert on Utrecht’s ancient central canal that left 20 people in hospital.

The injured were dancing on and under the staircase which led from street level to a quay next to the canal when it collapsed without warning sending some of them plunging onto a canal side walk or into the water, trapping people under the structure and sinking a boat that was on the canal.