A woman succumbed to her injuries after an advertising banner collapsed on her and 20 others at Linkin Park's concert.
|||Cape Town - A woman has died at the Cape Town leg of a worldwide tour by the US rock band Linkin Park.
The woman, whom authorities have yet to identify, was caught under a banner advert for Lucozade, when gale force winds caused the structure to collapse.
Twenty people in total where injured, some sustaining bone fractures, according to officials who were at the scene.
After the concert, Linkin Park released a statement expressing their condolences to the family of the deceased and the fans who had been hurt.
Spokeswoman Kymm Britton said in a statement: “Though we have had no relationship with the sponsor or the entity responsible for erecting the structure, we take the safety of our fans very seriously and our thoughts are with all of those who were affected by this tragedy.”
Big Concerts, one of the organisers who brought Linkin Park to South Africa for the group's Living Things world tour, also released a statement expressing their sympathies for the victims.
Dionne Domyan, spokeswoman for the promoter said: “We would like to thank the City of Cape Town, the South African Police Services, and all the medics, doctors, and disaster risk personnel for their swift and professional response to this accident.”
Meanwhile, on Big Concerts' official Facebook page where the statement regarding the structure collapse also appeared, fans reacted emotionally, some calling for legal action by the family of the fan who died against the company responsible for erecting the advertising structure despite warnings of gale force winds.
A comment by Jason Ross NaIdoo read: “They should [have] looked at a weather report and reassessed if the structure was really necessary and most of all safe to have around! I think the family of the deceased should board this run away train class action law suit straight into who ever is responsible for passing that advertising tower… “
Another fan commenting on the same post criticised Linkin Park for allegedly not making reference to the incident during their performance. Larry Shane September wrote: “I think its pretty pathetic that no one had the decency to at least make an announcement during the show. I'm not impressed big concerts. This is such a tragedy on a really great concert and band. Please do right by the family of the deceased.”
Big Concerts did not immediately respond to an e-mail from IOL asking if an investigation would be conducted.
Linkin Park's sold-out Johannesburg concert would continue on Saturday, the band confirmed. - IOL
Update 06:45: Big Concerts spokeswoman Dionne Domyan has confirmed to IOL that structural engineers had “pre-approved and certified safe” the advertising tower prior to its collapse.
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