Street Parade ends without major incident

Crowded, but there was no reason to panic at this year's Street Parade (swissinfo.ch) — Crowded, but there was no reason to panic at this year's Street Parade swissinfo.ch

Despite the rain, the Zurich Street Parade drew a crowd of 650,000 to the annual event on Saturday – 50,000 more than last year.

The parade began with a minute of silence to pay respects to the victims of the Love Parade stampede in Duisburg last month.

The large-scale Zurich event was held only three weeks after 21 people died and hundreds injured when panic broke out at the only entrance to the parade grounds in the German city.

The organisers of the Zurich Street Parade played down fears that such a tragedy could occur at the Swiss event. However, security precautions were reviewed, in light of Duisburg.

And people who followed the Love Mobiles around Zurich’s lakeshore said they were not worried such a tragedy would repeat itself in the Swiss city.

"I’m certain that that could not happen here. They made a big mistake in Duisberg by putting up a fence to seal off the area,” a young Swiss man told swissinfo.ch.

“I’m not thinking about what happened in Duisburg,” a young woman from Germany added. “I just want to enjoy the party.”

By the end of the parade, the authorities said paramedics had treated 444 persons - 169 fewer than in 2009, mostly for minor injuries or drug or alcohol excess.

More than 50 people were admitted to hospital – half as many as last year – and four were reported to have medium to serious injuries.

The police said they arrested 23 people for drug abuse, assault, theft and violation of Switzerland’s immigration law.

swissinfo.ch and agencies