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| Wednesday, 31 January, 2001, 13:21 GMT Festival crush victim dies ![]() Limp Bizkit: Singer Fred Durst appealed for calm A teenager injured in a crush at the Big Day Out festival in Australia has died in hospital. Around 30 people were injured on Friday during a performance by American rock band Limp Bizkit at the festival in Sydney. A 15-year-old girl, who suffered a cardiac arrest at the time, died on Wednesday at the city's Concord Hospital, according to the Australian Associated Press news agency.
In a statement, the organisers of Big Day Out said: "Our hearts and thoughts go out to her family and friends in this time of deep sorrow." Six others were injured in the crush, which organisers blamed on excessive heat and crowd excitement. Limp Bizkit stopped their headlining performance several times while singer Fred Durst pleaded with the crowd to calm down. When news of the girl's injury became clear, the band stopped playing for 20 minutes and wanted to stop playing altogether. But police officials at the scene feared a possible riot among the 20,000-strong crowd. The band later pulled out of the travelling festival completely, saying they had no confidence in its organisers. The incident evoked memories of the Roskilde Festival tragedy in Denmark, when nine people were killed in a crush while Pearl Jam were playing. More than 55,000 people attended the Sydney leg of Big Day Out, which also saw performances from Coldplay, PJ Harvey, At The Drive In and Queens of The Stone Age. | See also: Internet links: The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites Top Entertainment stories now: Links to more Entertainment stories are at the foot of the page. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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