© Pino Misuraca, AFP / Getty ImagesA man climbs a ladder beside a tree that fell on a promotions booth during a storm at the Pukkelpop music festival in Kiewit Hasselt on August 18, 2011. A violent storm hit an outdoor rock music festival Thursday in northern Belgium, leaving at least two person dead and 40 others seriously injured, firefighters said. Two stages collapsed, one falling on the concert-goers. Some giant screens also fell down and trees were uprooted by the fierce storm, the Belga news agency reported.
Ten more were seriously injured with three in critical condition, police said, as two stages collapsed, trees were uprooted and hailstones "the size of golf balls" rained down on petrified youths, witnesses said.
Organizers, who had drawn capacity crowds of 65,000 fans for each of the three days the event was due to run, called a halt to planned performances by global names such as Eminem and the Foo Fighters.
The storm "cost the lives of five people," Claes told a press conference, adding that all five victims were Belgian citizens and that in total 140 people had received medical treatment.
She said initial checks on emergency planning measures, which staff told AFP included "checking trees for their resistance to high winds, and testing the drainage system," left officials confident they had done everything that could be expected of them given such freak conditions.
Youngsters among the thousands of muddy-legged, sorrow-stained figures traipsing away from the campsite after sleepless nights late on Friday morning said no blame could be attached to the authorities.
Tens of thousands of people were attending the outdoor Pukkelpop festival when the storm broke Thursday, toppling one stage on concert-goers at the annual event - already marked by tragedy in recent years.
Up to 65,000 people, mainly youths, were thought to have been present at the festival when the storm hit, blowing down giant screens and uprooting trees.
"I was under the party tent when it came crashing down, we had to run for our lives," spiky-haired 17-year-old Matthias Vannievwenhuyze of western Flanders told AFP as he and friends began the long trudge back into the city.
"Hailstones almost the size of golf balls were raining down on us, I saw one girl knocked flat out when they hit her on the head. People were panicking, and a few minutes later, I saw medics lift her onto a stretcher.
"When they put a blanket over her, I knew she was dead - I hate to admit it, but at that moment, you don't think about other people's losses, you only think about yourself."
News of the chaos, which spread rapidly via mobile phone footage on social networking sites, brought thousands of parents from around Belgium and the Netherlands flooding into the site.
"People drove 200 kilometres to come and look for their children after watching the evening news," festival crew member Christel De Vries told AFP as the clean-up operation got under way on Friday.
"Parents were walking up and down the road at the main entrance shouting out the names of their children - the anguish on their faces was so emotional for me as a parent myself.
"I live in Hasselt, but the people in these big houses across the road were just wonderful.
"All through the night, they opened their doors, and took kids in to let them shower, have something to eat and sleep under a warm roof.
"They sent messages out on Twitter telling the kids to come in."
Many of the concert-goers were under a big tent, sheltered from the rains and listening to the group Smith Westerns, when it collapsed, with ambulances rushing to the scene as the concert came to a halt.
A crisis centre was set up in a gymnasium in Kiewit to help those who have been lightly injured or in shock.
Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme issued a statement offering his condolences to the families of the victims.
Last year at the festival's 25th season, two tragedies occurred: a sound engineer died of a heart attack, and a rock singer, Charles Haddon, died by suicide after jumping from the top of a pylon after his group performed.
This is the fourth major festival stage collapse this summer. On July 27, rock band Cheap Trick barely avoided being crushed when the stage at the Ottawa Bluesfest collapsed during a storm. A few were injured, but no one was killed.
On Aug. 7, psych-rockers The Flaming Lips saw their lighting rig destroyed by a storm in Tulsa, Oklahoma. No one was injured.
Most recently, five were killed and over 40 injured when the Indiana State Fair stage collapsed on Aug. 13 just as country band Sugarland was set to perform.
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