Hundreds injured in Spain festival promenade collapse

More than 250 people have been injured, five of them seriously, after part of a wooden promenade collapsed at a music festival in Spain, local officials said today.

The seafront platform, which was 30 metres (98 feet) long by 10 metres wide, was packed with people watching a rap artist in the northwestern city of Vigo when it suddenly collapsed just before midnight yesterday, Vigo mayor Abel Caballero told reporters at the scene.

"The causes have yet to be determined. Everything indicates that no one is trapped underneath," he added.

Witnesses told Spanish media that people struggled to scramble for safety from under the debris of the structure.

A total of 266 people were injured, five of them seriously with broken bones requiring hospitalisation, the regional health minister in the northwestern region of Galicia, Jesus Vazquez Almuina, told local radio.

"These are provisional figures, patients are still being evaluated. At the moment 266 patients have been treated, the vast majority are light injuries for bruises," he said.

"There are five hospitalisations, mainly broken bones and some head injuries," he added.

The promenade collapse happened as Mallorcan rap artist Rels B was performing as part of the two-day O Marisquino festival in Vigo, a city of around 300,000 people.