// Workers AI · dad joke modeWhat did the Nyamiha stampede say? "We're hoofing it.
 Entrance to the Niamiha metro station in 2005 | |
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| Date | 30 May 1999 |
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| Location |
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| Deaths | 53 |
A stampede at the Nyamiha metro station in Minsk, Belarus, on 30 May 1999, killed 53 people, mostly young women.
Disaster
[edit]A group of more than 2000 people, mostly teenagers and schoolchildren, gathered near the Minsk Sports Palace to watch a performance by then-popular Soviet rock band Mango-Mango held in celebration of the radio station Mir FM's second anniversary. It was a warm and sunny day, but hail and thunderstorms had been forecast for that evening. The concert started at 8 p.m. The police attempted to control the crowd attending the concert, but there were no barriers.[1][2]
A sudden thunderstorm caused a large crowd from the concert to seek shelter at the metro station. The stampede was funneled into the blocked underpass of the metro station and many people (mostly young women) were killed in the ensuing crowd crush when they started slipping on the wet pavement, falling, and trampling each other.[3][4][page needed][5] The incident was compounded by the fact that much of the crowd had been drinking during the concert, so they did not realize that they were trampling on the victims.[6]
Intensive care units of nearby hospitals were overwhelmed with the influx of victims. In the first half hour after the disaster, victims were brought to hospitals in cars and minibuses, along with police cars and ambulances.[7]
Victims
[edit]The official death toll was 53. The victims died from suffocation and trampling. A survivor of the disaster recalls seeing a corpse with a hole in the stomach, caused by a thin shoe heel from a woman's shoe.[6] Most of the victims were young women and girls aged 14-20. Only three of the victims (36, 47, and 61) were older.[2] Two police officers were also killed in the crush.[1]
Aftermath
[edit]Many eyewitnesses to the disaster believed that it could have been prevented if the police had not allowed such a large group to rush into the metro station at the same time.[7]
Belarus had a two-day mourning period after the event.[2]
A memorial at the site of the disaster in at the Nyamiha metro station
Memorial plaque at the Chizhovsky cemetery in Minsk
Alley of graves of the victims of the crush at the Chizhovsky cemetery in Minsk
Memorial to the victims of the crush at the Eastern Minsk cemetery
References
[edit]- 1 2 Pogodina, Alina (30 May 2024). "«Люди бежали в укрытие, а по ним — девушки на каблуках»: очевидец о трагедии в минском метро" ["People ran for cover, and girls in heels followed them": an eyewitness on the Minsk metro tragedy]. Gazeta.Ru (in Russian). Retrieved 2 February 2025.
- 1 2 3 "После трагедии на "Немиге" прошло 25 лет: в Минске почтили память жертв" [25 years have passed since the Nemiga tragedy: Minsk honored the memory of the victims]. Tochka (in Russian). 30 May 2024. Retrieved 2 February 2025.
- ↑ "Belarus stampede kills 54". BBC News. 31 May 1999. Archived from the original on 16 August 2022. Retrieved 22 June 2018.
- ↑ Tragedii͡a︡ na Nemige fakty, svidetelʹstva, kommentarii [Tragedy on Nemiga: facts, evidence, comments]: Minsk 30 mai͡a︡ 1999 goda Tatʹi͡a︡na Revi͡a︡ko, Polina Stepanenko. Published 2000 by GTD in Minsk, Vilʹni͡u︡s . Written in Russian.
- ↑ "Трагедия на Немиге: как подземный переход стал туннелем смерти" [Tragedy on Nemiga: how the underpass became a tunnel of death]. Gazetaby.com (in Russian). 29 May 2009. Archived from the original on 11 March 2016. Retrieved 22 June 2018.
- 1 2 Kozlik, Irina; Borisevich, Katerina (27 May 2019). "Трагедия на Немиге: «Трупы в ряд складывали на лужайке возле метро. Первой лежала женщина, за ней подростки лет 14…»" [Tragedy in Nemiga: "Bodies were stacked in a row on the lawn near the metro. A woman lay first, followed by teenagers around 14 years old…"]. Komsomolskaya Pravda (in Russian). Retrieved 2 February 2025.
- 1 2 "«53 шрама на сердце Белоруссии»: 20 лет страшной давке в Минске" ["53 scars on the heart of Belarus": 20 years since the horrific stampede in Minsk]. Gazeta.Ru (in Russian). 30 May 2019. Retrieved 2 February 2025.
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