MINSK, 17 December (BelTA) – The latest episode of the documentary series Time Chose Us aired by the TV channel Belarus One covered a terrible tragedy that took lives of 53 people outside the metro station Nemiga in Minsk in 1999, BelTA has learned.
Over 2,500 people turned up for a big celebration outside the Sport Palace on 30 May. It was a massive concert in honor of two years since the radio station Mir had been founded. But torrential rain and hail began in Minsk at eight in the evening. A huge mob of people rushed to the nearest shelter: the metro station Nemiga. A terrible stampede killed 53 people. 1 June and 2 June were declared mourning days in Belarus.
A memorial in the form of bronze flowers was set up outside an entrance to the metro station Nemiga three years later. It contains 40 roses and 13 tulips to match the number of men and women, who died in the stampede.
Only five police officers happened to be at the metro station’s entrance when the storm began. In accordance with their instructions they formed a line and tried to separate the mob by letting people go to the metro station batch by batch. But the mob swept away the police officers. Two of them died.
After getting to their senses after the first shock caused by the storm and hail, the people stopped. Within minutes those, who had wanted to go to the metro so much, started carrying the injured out to ambulances.
The event generated a bunch of conspiracy theories about the cause of the inconceivable tragedy. Some blamed law enforcement agencies for slacking on the job. But in the end it turned out that the death of the uniformed personnel prevented much larger casualties.
It may seem that alcohol may be the reason for such behavior. But expert evaluations indicated that nearly all the dead had been sober. Only three people had had insignificant amounts of alcohol in their blood. That level could not be classified even as a light degree of intoxication.
It may have been the first time when Belarusians saw the president at a loss for words. “I would like to express my deepest condolences to these people. Although it is the first time I am at a loss for words. The tragedy is too terrible for condolences. But nevertheless, we have to live on, life goes on. Certainly, we will do everything to help families and close relatives of these people,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said after laying flowers at the site of the tragedy.
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