TOKYO (Reuters) - At least 10 people were killed, including eight children, and about 100 were injured in a crush of people as crowds poured out of a fireworks' display at the Japanese seaside town of Akashi on Saturday, officials said. (Read photo caption below).
Security guards blamed inadequate exit routes which caused overcrowding at the only pedestrian bridge linking the beach, where the show took place, to the local railway station.
Pedestrians caught in the crowd on the shore side of the 20-foot-wide overpass apparently tripped, triggering a human avalanche that led to the pile-up at the foot of the bridge, Kyodo news agency said.
Emergency services set up tents at the site to treat the large number of injured. The incident, which happened shortly after 8:30 p.m. (7:30 a.m. EDT), is the worst such accident in Japan since 1981.
Eight children, aged two to nine, and two women, one aged 71, were killed, a local city official said.
Several of the 100 injured were seriously hurt, the official said by telephone from Akashi, near the city of Kobe on Japan's main central Honshu island.
About 150,000 people attended the beachside fireworks display on the second day of a three-day holiday weekend, NHK said. Friday was the island nation's Marine Day holiday.
The pedestrian bridge was the only route between the seashore fireworks show and the train station, and security guards hinted show arrangements may have been inadequate.
It was the first time the festival, which has been held for 32 years, had been switched to a beach venue from the center of town where communications were easier, domestic media said.
Police were investigating whether the accident involved poor security arrangements at the festival, Kyodo said.
About 3,000 fireworks were set off at the finale of the summer festival held by the Akashi municipal government.
Some 80 city government employees and about 150 guards were on watch at the festival, while police mobilized 350 officers for the two-day event, Kyodo quoted local police as saying.
The previous worst such incident was in 1987 when three people were crushed to death at an outdoor rock concert in Tokyo. Fireworks are a popular summer entertainment in Japan and draw huge crowds.
PHOTO CAPTION:
An unidentified person is rushed to a hospital by medics in Akashi, western Japan, on Saturday night, July 21, 2001 after being injured in a crush. At least 10 people were crushed to death, most of them children, and about 100 more were injured as people crowded near a pedestrial overpass close to a railway station after watching a fireworks display. (AP Photo/Koji Osaki, Mainichi Shimbun)