The most common stampedes are recorded in horses, elephants and cows
The idea of stampede has its origin in the Occitan language and usually refers to the disorganized and abrupt flight carried out by a group of animals . The term can also refer to the impetuous and chaotic movement of a group of human beings .
Spontaneous reaction
Stampedes are caused by an unexpected phenomenon or event. Faced with confusion or fear, individuals tend to try to escape in order to protect themselves from possible danger.
Once a stampede breaks out, its consequences are unpredictable. Not only can they destroy what is in their path, but the protagonists of the escape themselves can fall and be crushed by others.
Elephants , cows and horses are some of the animals that, when grouped together, can cause stampedes. In the case of livestock, those in charge use different strategies to minimize the risk of these incidents occurring.
Human stampedes
Human stampedes , meanwhile, can occur at massive events such as a pilgrimage or a concert. If terror breaks out in a crowd (due to an explosion, to mention one possibility), people try to escape and crushing and death from suffocation can occur. No matter how hard the security forces try to alert the masses about the consequences of this type of phenomenon, the power of terror is stronger than reason.
Throughout history, dozens of human stampedes have been recorded with different degrees of consequences, from large numbers of injuries to hundreds of deaths . When we take a look at the long list, we can notice that these unfortunate events took place in different parts of the world, so evidently this reaction to the unknown, to a potential dangerous situation, is in our DNA and transcends races, cultures and epochs.
Mecca Stampede, 2015
It happened on September 24, 2015, and it was one of the most tragic stampedes in history . It took place in Mina , Mecca , within the framework of the annual pilgrimage of the Muslim people. Hundreds of fatalities and injuries were recorded.
The name given to this pilgrimage that all the faithful carry out each year is hajj , although it is also known as hach , and in Spanish it is called "stoning of the devil." The exact place where the stampede broke out was the intersection of streets 204 and 223, through which you can reach the Jamaraat pedestrian bridge, part of the usual route of this ritual path .
It is important to note that the number of death victims varies according to the source, so we cannot know it with complete certainty. For example, while official reports by Saudi Arabian authorities were 769 deaths, Agence France-Presse , Reuters and Associated Press reported 2,236, 2,070, and 2,411 deaths, respectively.
Mecca, site where a deadly stampede broke out in 2015
Regarding their origins, reports speak of a majority coming from Mali, Nigeria and Iran. On the other hand, the Pakistani Federal Minister for Religious Affairs stated that it was not possible to identify around 1,250 of the people who died in the stampede. Something similar happened with the pilgrims from other countries who disappeared during the incident. Unfortunately, two weeks earlier, another fatal accident had occurred in Mecca, when a crane collapsed, causing more than one hundred deaths and almost four hundred serious injuries.
Another meaning
It should be noted that a loud, dry roar is also mentioned as a stampede or boom . For example : “The stampede of the cannon scared the birds” , “When he heard the stampede of the shot, the man sat up” .