Four teenage girls die in stampede at shopping mall

JAKARTA (JP): Four teenage girls died in a stampede as hundreds of fans struggled to meet British boyband a1 at the Taman Anggrek shopping mall in West Jakarta on Sunday afternoon.

A nurse at the emergency room of Sumber Waras Hospital identified two of the victims as Rani Sintami, 13, and her sister Eka Wanti, 20, both residents of Jl. K.H. Ahmad Dahlan in the Petir subdistrict of Tangerang.

Another victim was identified as Indri Ayuningtyas Dharmawan, 17, a student at Santa Ursula Senior High School and a resident of Jl. Mangga XIV Duri Kepa in West Jakarta. The fourth body has not yet been identified.

"Their bodies and lips were blue when they came in at about 2:15 p.m.," the nurse, Eti Narhayati, told The Jakarta Post.

The four bodies were later transferred to the morgue at Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital.

Indri's family took her body home after refusing to allow an autopsy to be performed.

Here on a promotional tour for their latest album, The A List, the British boyband, comprising Ben Adams, Christian Ingebrigtsen, Paul Marazzi and Mark Read, arrived on Saturday and are scheduled to leave for London on Wednesday.

It is not clear whether the members of the band were aware of the deaths. The band left the mall and gave a live performance on private television station Indosiar's Pesta, at about 7 p.m. on Sunday.

Nobody from Disc Tara or Sony Music, which organized the event at the mall, could be reached for comment.

The deputy chief of the West Jakarta Police, Adj. Sr. Comr. M. Simbolon, said eight members of the event's organizing committee had been questioned.

A similar occurrence occurred in Lampung last November when Indonesian band Sheila On 7 gave a performance. Five people died in that incident.

The event at the mall on Sunday was held to give fans the opportunity to buy copies of The A List from Disc Tara, and with the receipt to have their cassettes signed by members of the band.

The Disc Tara store, located on the third floor of the shopping mall, has been sealed off by the police and at least two officers from the Tanjung Duren subprecinct were seen securing the area.

Meanwhile, Eko of the mall's customer service division, told the Post on Sunday that the incident, which occurred at about 1:15 p.m., was the first such incident at the mall.

"We have organized at least 10 such fan gatherings here in the past years. This is the first time anything like this has happened. The gathering was scheduled for one hour ... from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.," Eko said.

"From the mall itself, we provided at least 20 officers to secure the music store ... we don't understand how this could happen. We are currently holding an internal investigation."

A source in the mall's customer service division told the Post Disk Tara had promised to provide at least 40 security guards to secure the event.

"There were less ... much less than 40. And there seemed to be hundreds waiting to see a1. This is a very tragic event. It could have been prevented had there been proper security," the source said.

The band is scheduled to be interviewed at 6 p.m. on Monday on Indosiar, and will hold a media conference at the Crowne Plaza Hotel and perform live at the Hard Rock Cafe on Tuesday. (ylt)