The Prince George Citizen - Thursday, February 14,1991 - 9 International WORSHIPPERS CRUSHED IN MEXICO At least 41 die in pilgrimage tragedy ■ CHALMA, Mexico (AP) — Hope for miracles at a mountain church turned to horror as the crush of thousands of faithful inside the cathedral killed at least 41 people, including more than a dozen children, officials said. Some pilgrims called it a miracle in itself that they got out alive from the Ash Wednesday stampede, which sent at least 21 other people to hospital. Before the incident, a long line of buses and trucks festooned with bright pink flowers brought worshipers to this town 65 kilometres south of Mexico City. They were making a centuries-old annual pilgrimage to a Christ-like icon believed to work miracles. Arriving multitudes pushed through the narrow street leading to the Sanctuary of Our Lord of Chalma only to collide with throngs leaving the church. In the frenzy to get through the doorway, 13 children and 28 adults were suffocated and crushed to death, officials said. “There was an avalanche of people,” said Maria Velazquez, 46. “We were leaving and those that were coming in squashed those going out.” Her sister-in-law’s nine-year-old daughter was killed in the press of the crowd. The stampede apparently started partly because street vendors Authorities look over some of the 41 victims in church stampede. blocked the way of the streams of people, the state government said in a statement. Gov. Ignacio Pichardo Pagaza gave orders for another street to be built next to the sanctuary, but admitted in the statement that “the technical work would be complicated to carry out” because of the location on a ravine. Authorities also pledged to step up police security in coming years. When the sun set on the Ash Wednesday observance, the bodies of the humbly dressed victims lay covered with shawls and blankets in rows on the concrete courtyard floor of a public school adjacent to the church. The bodies had pieces of notebook paper pinned to their clothes with identification given by family members who lined up at long tables of typewriters set up by the state attorney general’s staff for interviews. “My girl, my girl!,” wailed grief-stricken Beatrice Neri, 26, as Kirk Douglas escapes crash SANTA PAULA Calif. (Reuter) — Actor Kirk Douglas had a “miracle escape” when the helicopter he was taking a pleasure trip in collided with a stunt i>lane shortly after take-off, the doctor who treated him said today. Douglas, 72, and two companions, survived the crash. The two ?le on board the stunt plane ied. [ “It’s ajnii ived,” Dr, DOUGLAS liracle that anyone survived,” Or, Robert Decker, who treated Douglas and the other two survivors at Santa Paula Memorial Hospital, told reporters. Douglas, his mend Noel Blanc, and pilot Michael Carra, an off-duty Los Angeles police officer, were about 12 metres off the ground in their Bell 206 helicopter when it collided with a two-seater Pitts Special stunt biplane. Wwitnesses, who spoke to rescuers, said the helicopter cart-wheeled for several hundred metre before coming to rest on its side. The names of the two people aboard the fixed-wing craft were not released. After being treated at the Santa Paula hospital Douglas was transferred to the Cedars Sinai Medical Centre in Los Angeles, suffering from broken ribs, cuts and bruises. His condition was described as “stable.” The other two survivors remained at the Santa Paula hospital. Carra was said to be in good condition by hospital adm inistiator Rulon Barlow. Blanc, the son of Mel Blanc, who was the voice for such Warner Brothers cartoon characters as Bugs Bunny, was undergoing surgery late Wednesday and was said to be in serious condition. Douglas was thought to be spending time with his actor son, Michael, who lives nearby in Santa Barbara. Santa Paula airport, about 120 kilometres northwest of Los Angeles, is a popular spot for stunt pilots. It also houses several experimental helicopters. The late movie star Steve McQueen kept a fleet of antique planes there. Douglas began his Hollywood career in 1949 and has appeared in such films as A Letter to Three Wives, Ulysses, In Harm’s Way, Seven Days in May, The Bad and the Beautiful, Lonely Are the Brave, The Arrangement, The Fury and Paths of Glory. SEARCHING FOR KEY WITNESS Mandela trial postponed JOHANNESBURG (AP) — A South African judge has postponed the kidnapping and assault trial of Winnie Mandela until March 6 to give police time to find a key witness allegedly abducted earlier this week. Judge M.S. Stegmann agreed with prosecutors who said today they could not proceed after one witness disappeared and two more refused to testify because they feared for their lives. Mandela, wife of Nelson Mandela, the African National Congress leader, is one of four defendants charged with kidnapping and assaulting four young men at the Mandela’s Soweto home outside Johannesburg in December 1988. Three of the young men are the main state witnesses and the fourth, Stompie Seipei, 14, was found dead in January 1989. The four defendants pleaded not guilty Monday. One witness, Gabriel Mekgwe, disappeared Sunday night hours before he was to take the witness stand. The other witnesses, Kenneth Kgase and Tabiso Mono, refused to give evidence Wednesday. They said Mekgwe’s disappearance made them fear for their lives. A man claiming to be Mekgwe telephoned several Johannesburg newspapers and news agencies Wednesday, saying he was in Zimbabwe and was safe. The caller said he refused to return to South Africa to testify and was working with the ANC, the leading black opposition group. The judge said he sympathized with Kgase and Mono, but he did not consider their fear of reprisals “a just excuse” for declining to give evidence. “They believe that their lives are at stake,” the judge said. Stegmann ordered Kgase and Mono detained this morning, but they were released after the trial postponement was announced. If they again refuse to testify when the trial resumes, they could face up to five years in prison. 6/49 & B.C. KENO Wednesday Sponsored by Whether You Win $10 or $10 Million for the Finest In Musical Instruments 563-0691 OSS THE SbB music LTD, The winning numbers in Wednesday’s Lotto-649 draw were 3, 5, 23, 24, 34 and 47. The bonus number was 31. The $5 million jackpot was not won._________ The four extra winning numbers for British Columbia on Wednesday were 3,46,69 and 93. The winning numbers drawn Wednesday in the B.C. Keno lottery were 2,19,20,22,23,27,40 and 41. In the event of a discrepancy between this and the official winning numbers list, the latter shall prevail. she left the school after identifying her dead daughter. A file of young men bearing blue and white satin-covered coffins to the schoolyard threaded through the faithful whose faces were marked with a cross of ash in observance of Ash Wednesday. “Everyone is sad,” said Rufino Torres, 40, a snack vendor. “An accident of this kind has never happened before.” But as ambulances began to take the bodies away, another group of men set up a fireworks display in the churchyard and more people gathered for an evening celebration. “We still have faith,” Velazquez said. She said she and her family would make the pilgrimage from their home in Tepepan on the southern edge of Mexico city again next year as they usually do. Candida Arenillas, 51, who made the pilgrimage from Atlixco, in the adjacent state of Puebla, said a relative died, and she lost the little girl she was taking care of in the crunch at the church but found the child later. “We were spared miraculously, because we cried out to the Lord of Chalma to save us,” Arenillas said. The crucified Jesus figure is credited with curing the sick, healing the lame and other miracles. The streets of Chalma are clogged with believers who come from all over central Mexico every Ash Wednesday, swelling the town of about 15,000 to more than double its normal population. Only one passageway leads to the three-storey cathedral perched on a steep cliff above a river and bounded by buildings, making it accessible from only one side. Street vendors who lined every step of the passage with portable stalls vending peanut brittle, painted wooden toys, sandals and incense, were blamed for contributing to the mayhem this year. About 3,500 people were at the church doors when the panicking and pushing broke out, state spokesman Carlos Mota said in a telephone interview from the state capital of Toluca. “Some people were trampled and others suffocated inside the church in the atrium,” he said. The pilgrimage dates back hundreds of years, Mota said. Chalma was a sacred sight for Indians before Roman Catholic priests arrived there from Spain in 1537 following the Spanish Conquest of Mexico. The clergy found Indians worshipped the god Tezcadipoca in a cave and themselves moved into the cave in 1623. CongratulationsE You’re \ McMarried WEST CARROLLTON, Ohiq (AP) — Twenty-three couples gathered in a McDonald’s restaurant today and made it their kind of place to get married. , ; The couples exchanged wedding vows in a mass Sl Valentine’^ Day ceremony sponsored by ^ radio station. One couple got married in their car. Miamisburg Mayor Don Lucas read the vows over the drivej through’s loudspeaker to Briari Brengman and Tammy Purslay, both of Union City, who listened with a car window rolled down in the -1 cold and blowing snow. Lucas pronounced them husband and wife, then said: “Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Brengman. Please drive through.” The rest of the couples lined up in an alcove of the restaurant for the ceremony, some dressed in tuxedos and wedding gowns, others in a coat and tie or a dress. Surrounded by family members, reporters and restaurant machinery, Lucas led the couples in their vows. Lucas pronounced the couples married. The crowd applauded, and an accordion player belted out Here Comes the Bride. “It’s not every day you can get married at McDonald’s,” said Jamie Osbom of Dayton. Swanepoel said it would be “impossible to continue” without the testimony of the three witnesses. But, the prosecutor added, “if Mr. Mekgwe is found and is well, they (Kgase and Mono) will probably be willing to testify.” In a court appearance Wednesday, Kgase said he would refuse to testify even if it meant going to prison. The trial could damage relations between Nelson Mandela’s ANC and the government as they prepare for negotiations on a new constitution to end white minority rule. But Mandela flew to Cape Town on Tuesday and held a lengthy meeting with President F.W. de Klerk. In a joint statement, they said they had ironed out problems in the ongoing talks between the ANC and white-led government. Mandela has given no public indication that the talks will be jeopardized by his wife’s trial. 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