Two die as scaffolding collapses at Gigi gig

Two concertgoers were killed and 50 others were injured late on Saturday after scaffolding they were sitting on collapsed at a Tangerang university.

The dead, who police named as Saiful Anwar and Zainal Asikin, died when a ledge constructed around the campus' student center building fell onto them.

They were attending a concert by the band Gigi held at the Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University (UIN) campus in Ciputat, Tangerang.

Organizing committee head Diman said dozens of concertgoers had sat on the ledge.

"It was supported by thin concrete and it was frail. I still don't know how they managed to climb up there," he was quoted as saying by detik.com on Sunday.

Gigi had only played three songs when the ledge broke, with people and debris landing on the audience below.

The crowd demanded Gigi continue with the show before the band stopped after the seventh song.

UIN Rector Azyumardi Azra visited the injured victims at the Fatmawati Hospital in the early hours of Sunday and sent his apologies to the victims' families.

The university would cover all the medical expenses of the victims, he said

"The university will also give some money to the families who lost their children as an expression of our sympathy," Azyumardi said.

"The accident was out of control. We did not authorize for the ledge to be used ... I heard some people had climbed the emergency stairs to reach the scaffold," he said.

Ciputat Police detectives chief First Insp. Bambang Widinako, said police were still investigating the case.

"We have summoned two witnesses from the organizing committee. So far, we have not determined if it was an accident or not," he said. -- JP