Police - Panic After Balloon Parade Caused By "Mass Hysteria"
The National Police said there was no exchange of gunfire in the areas near the "balloon parade" held on Sunday afternoon, and the stampede was the result of "mass hysteria". "Some people were running, but they didn't know why they started running, others said someone had told them there was gunfire, and some people took off running simply because they saw others running," said police Major Elmer Castillo. Castillo said only two people were injured who required treatment at the Santo Tomas hospital for stab wounds, the product of knife fights that took place on National Ave. and in Santa Ana. (Telemetro)
Editor's Comment: Last night after the balloon parade was over, people started walking through Calidonia trying to get to some point where they could catch a bus to get home - there was not enough public transportation available to move the thousands of people who went to see the parade. Then all of a sudden there were reports of mass hysteria, panic, gunfire, and people running, all reported simultaneously via Twitter. The police said (repeatedly) there was no gunfire and people simply had panicked. However many journalists received reports some kind of gunfire had in fact provoked the panicked response. As far as the police are concerned if they didn't catch someone in the act with a smoking gun in their hand then it simply didn't happen (denial). But what did in fact happen was the panic itself - and whether it was caused by a "mass hysteria" or not is somewhat irrelevant. Fear is fear, plain and simple.
