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Nearly 200 die in carnival celebrations in Latin America
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-03-02 09:27
Nearly 200 people were killed and hundreds more wounded in carnival festivals
in Ecuador, Colombia, Bolivia and Panama, according to reports reaching here on
Wednesday.
The heaviest death toll occurred in Ecuador where 104 people died, 262 were
wounded, and five committed suicide, police spokesman Juan Zapata told the press
in the capital of Quito.
Thanks to new Carnival security measures, this year's death toll is still
lower than that of last year, when the festival claimed 120 lives and 1,510
people were arrested, Zapata said.
In Bolivia, 57 people died and 208 were injured, tripling the number
registered a year earlier. Drunk driving was the main cause of the casualties,
police said.
In Colombia's Barranquilla festival, 17 people were killed, nearly doubling
last year's figure of nine deaths, medical workers said.
Of those dead, seven died in car accidents and six in shootings, one was
beaten to death at a club, one was strangled, a minor was drowned and another
person, who was drunk, fell from a bridge.
In Panama, two people died in carnival accidents, a much lower figure than a
year earlier when 18 people were killed.
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