The day after the Lan Kwai Fong tragedy. Credit: Post Magazine
Lan Kwai Fong Tragedy
On January 1 of 1993, 20 lives were lost and 71 were injured in Hong Kong in the night club district on Lan Kwai Fong street. A crowd of 20,000 people rushed out of restaurants and clubs and surged into the streets so they could witness the countdown to midnight. This sounds very normal, because it happens every year on New Year’s Eve in New York City when people gather to see the ball drop. But there was something about that crowd in Hong Kong that night that caused a stampede to occur.
People walking towards the Sabarimala shrine in Kerala, India. Credit: Wikimedia Commons
1999 Sabarimala Stampede
In January of 1999, over 200,000 pilgrims were gathered at the Hindu Sabarimala shrine in Kerala, India. They were all scrambling to witness what they called a “celestial light” that they could see in the distance. Thousands of men were standing on a hill. A landslide occurred from the sheer weight of those people standing on the hill. This caused a panic of people running away from the landslide, rushing down the hill as it fell, and people being buried alive. A total of 52 people perished in the tragedy. This wasn’t the first tragedy to happen to Hindu pilgrims, though. In 1996, more than 200 pilgrims perished when they were caught in a blizzard en route to the sacred Amarnath cave site in the northern state of Kashmir. After the tragedy, the owners of the temple admitted that their “celestial light” was actually man made.
Many children lost their shoes when running away from the Throb nightclub disaster. Credit: New Frame
Throb Nightclub Disaster
The Throb nightclub disaster occurred on March 24, 2000. A panic broke out after the detonation of a tear gas canister at the Throb nightclub in Chatsworth, Durban in South Africa. Unlike most nightclubs, this night was filled with very young kids who went out dancing. There were 600 children from age 11-14 celebrating the end of term. The incident resulted in the demise of 13 children and 100 injured. The youngest to pass in the accident was just 11 years old. Vincent Pillay, Selvan Naidoo, and Sivanthan Chetty were accused for the incident. Naidoo and Pillay later admitted their involvement in the Durban High Court. Naidoo confessed that he put the canister behind the speakers after Pillay smuggled it inside the club. He said he was offered $1,000 and a job at Silver Slipper Club by Chetty, the manager there.
