19 dead in Love Parade stampede [PHOTO/VIDEO]

What should have been a celebration of techno-music and dance turned into horror near the field where hundreds of thousands gathered during the afternoon. Many continued to party even as the air was filled the noise of police sirens, unaware of the tragedy taking place behind them.

Rescue squads had to fight their way through an ocean of people, many of whom were inebriated although friendly. “They simply had no idea of the scale of the tragedy,” said a police spokesman.

A state of emergency was declared in the city by the local authority as the extent of the horror unfolded.

Officials estimated that between 500,000 and a million people descended on Duisburg for the day-long techno music festival, that was first held in Berlin in 1989 but moved to the Ruhr area, Germany’s former industrial heartland, in 2007 following disagreements with the capital’s authorities over logistics and security.

Police said the victims were trampled to death in an underpass connecting a railway goods yard where the partygoers assembled to the parade ground itself.