February 11, 2008	Monday	Safar 03, 1429

JAKARTA, Feb 10: Ten young people were trampled or crushed to death as hundreds of music fans tried to force their way out of a rock concert in the Indonesian city of Bandung, police and hospital officials said on Sunday.

Witnesses told the local Pikiran Rakyat daily that people inside the packed venue were trying to escape the crush just as hundreds of others were surging their way inside.

“Ten people were killed, one of them has not yet been identified. Six other people were injured,” Bandung police chief Bambang Suparsono told the Detikcom online news portal.The dead are mostly teenagers. He said an investigation was underway into the incident late on Saturday.

Detikcom, quoting another police officer, said the capacity of the building was for 700 people but that only around 400 attended the concert by a popular heavy metal group called Besides.

The concert was being held to launch its latest album.

Pikiran Rakyat said there were more than 1,500 people inside, which it said was about 500 more than the building’s capacity.

“We have questioned 51 witnesses and three suspects,” Suparsono said according to Detikcom. The three were all from the organisers, he said, and added that more “from the committee of the crew” could also join the three as suspects.

“The bodies of 10 people have been brought here but all but three have been taken by their family,” said Toto, a staff member at the local hospital morgue where the dead were initially brought.—AFP