At least 10 dead in Mexico nightclub crush
By Alberto Fajardo
MEXICO CITY, June 20 (Reuters) - At least 10 people died on Friday as hundreds of young party-goers rushed to get out of a crowded nightclub in the Mexican capital during a raid on under-age drinkers, police said.
Seven youths, including two minors, and three police officers were asphyxiated in a scramble to leave the News Divine disco after a tip-off from its owner that police were in the building, Mexico City's police chief Joel Ortega said.
"More than 1,000 people left in a stampede and that caused the seven deaths," Ortega told the Televisa network.
Mexican media photographs showed three bodies lying in the street outside the entrance to the nightclub, their shirts and shoes torn off.
The three police officers died when they were smothered by people surging out the emergency exit, Ortega said. He gave no details of the the number of people injured.
"Everyone went for the emergency exit. The emergency exit is very small ... and that's why people were asphyxiated," he said.
Police arrested more than 30 youths and the nightclub's owner.
Ortega said the crackdown on the party to celebrate the end of the school year was not a surprise raid and the owner had been told about the operation.
Selling alcohol to people under 18 is illegal in Mexico and nightclubs are allowed to operate only within certain time limits. However, those laws are largely ignored by bar and nightclub owners.
MEXICO CITY, June 20 (Reuters) - At least 10 people died on Friday as hundreds of young party-goers rushed to get out of a crowded nightclub in the Mexican capital during a raid on under-age drinkers, police said.
Seven youths, including two minors, and three police officers were asphyxiated in a scramble to leave the News Divine disco after a tip-off from its owner that police were in the building, Mexico City's police chief Joel Ortega said.
"More than 1,000 people left in a stampede and that caused the seven deaths," Ortega told the Televisa network.
Mexican media photographs showed three bodies lying in the street outside the entrance to the nightclub, their shirts and shoes torn off.
The three police officers died when they were smothered by people surging out the emergency exit, Ortega said. He gave no details of the the number of people injured.
"Everyone went for the emergency exit. The emergency exit is very small ... and that's why people were asphyxiated," he said.
Police arrested more than 30 youths and the nightclub's owner.
Ortega said the crackdown on the party to celebrate the end of the school year was not a surprise raid and the owner had been told about the operation.
Selling alcohol to people under 18 is illegal in Mexico and nightclubs are allowed to operate only within certain time limits. However, those laws are largely ignored by bar and nightclub owners.
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