Corralejas Espinal: hundreds injured during festivities in Tolima - Other Cities - Colombia

An emergency lives at this time in the municipality of Espinal, Tolima, after the collapse of several boxes in the square where the corralejas are held for the celebration of the festivities of San Pedro.

Videos and cameras recorded the moment of the collapse of the guadua and wood boxes, for which many people were injured, fractured and injured.

At the moment, the authorities have not released exact figures of the injured, but there is talk of more than 60 people who were affected.

The Civil Defense of Tolima pointed out that among the injured there are children, women, men and even older adults who attended the event, which the day before left nine people injured.

A part of the square of boxes of El Espinal #Tolimawhich is armed for the festivities, collapsed this Sunday noon, relief agencies report more than 200 injured. pic.twitter.com/yFfXIRymQL

— Derli Lopez (@derlilopeza) June 26, 2022

The bull that was part of the bullfighting show left the place and is causing panic in the streets of Espinal. In addition, a yellow alert was declared in the municipality to be able to attend to the emergency in a timely manner.

For his part, the councilman of Iván Ferney Rojas stated that the Espinal hospital and the ambulance services collapsed. “We need support from ambulances and neighboring hospitals, many people are still unattended. Our Hospital collapsed,” he said.

The Mayor’s Office of Espinal regretted what happened through a statement and asked all the inhabitants for calm.

“We deeply regret what happened in the bullring. We want to call for calm to the entire community. Once the emergency was made known, the relief agencies acted immediately, achieving the evacuation of the wounded for primary health care at the San Rafael Hospital in the municipality,” they said.

And they added that for now, “we are activated in the Municipal Council for Disaster Risk Management, as soon as we have an official report, we will be confirming them.”

Likewise, Major Luis Fernando Vélez, director of the Tolima Civil Defense, confirmed that lifeguards were sent to that municipality to collaborate in the rescue work of those affected who were left under the boxes.

“I hope that all the people affected by the collapse of the Plaza de El Espinal can get out of their wounds. This had already happened before in Sincelejo. I ask the mayors not to authorize more shows with the death of people or animals“President-elect Gustavo Petro wrote in his account.

I hope that all the people affected by the collapse of the Plaza de El Espinal can come out of their wounds unscathed.

This had already happened before in Sincelejo.

I ask the mayors not to authorize more shows with the death of people or animals. pic.twitter.com/dMAq6uqlKX

– Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) June 26, 2022