Festival stampede kills at least 44, injures 103 in northern Israel

JERUSALEM, April 30 (Xinhua) -- At least 44 people were killed and 103 injured after midnight Thursday due to crowding at an Israeli festival attended by tens of thousands of people, local media reported.

The tragedy happened in Mount Meron in northern Israel during a festival celebrated every year on the eve of the Jewish holiday Lag BaOmer.

According to estimates by Israeli media, about 100,000 people, most of them ultra-Orthodox Jews, participated in the festival this time.

It was first speculated that the tragedy was caused by the collapse of a stand, but Israeli ambulance service Magen David Adom (MDA) later said it was caused by crowding.

The MDA added that the wounded were evacuated, some of them by helicopters, to four hospitals in northern Israel and Jerusalem.

United Hatzalah emergency medical service said that dozens of resuscitations were carried out at the site by the organization's volunteers.