LIMA, PERU (CelebrityAccess) — At least thirteen people were killed in a stampede at a nightclub in Peru on Saturday sparked by a police raid to enforce COVID-19 restrictions.
According to Peru’s interior ministry, about 120 people were in Thomas Restobar Club in Lima on Saturday night when the police raid began at approximately 9 P.M.
People inside the club attempted to escape through the the single exit from the second floor and became trapped in a confined space where many of them were trampled or suffocated.
“People got excited and started to go down, and then they said that the people in front were suffocating,” said Franco Asensios, one of the people who attended the event told local media.
After the stampede, police had to force the door to open it, NBC news reported.
Approximately 23 people were arrested at the event and 15 of those people tested positive for COVID-19, Claudio Ramírez, a spokesman for Peru’s Health Ministry, told reporters.
Peru has prohibited nightclubs from operating since March when the pandemic began.
