Panic took over a Florida prayer vigil for sufferers of the fear assaults in Israel on Monday evening, leading to more than one accidents after the group rapidly took off in a stampede, government mentioned.
Scholars had collected on the College of Florida in Gainesville to pay their respects to the masses of other folks killed in Israel since Saturday when police mentioned the group was spooked simply earlier than 9 p.m.
Anyone attending the vigil fainted, prompting others to invite for anyone to name 911, the college’s police division mentioned in a observation.
“The decision was once misunderstood via the group, which dispersed in a panic,” police mentioned.
Video taken moments earlier than the push and posted to social media displays attendees quietly paying attention to a speaker when a wave of screams emerges from the space, prompting everybody to run.
The college has one of the vital biggest Jewish scholar populations on this planet, in keeping with native station WCJB, resulting in many being on edge because of the continued violence out of the country.
Nick VanZandt, a College of Florida scholar who shot video and took pictures of the scene’s chaotic aftermath, instructed HuffPost there was once “some stress” and “very emotional scenes” previous to the panic, which left him with “a couple of scrapes and bruises.”
There didn’t seem to be any individual protesting the development, then again, and native regulation enforcement treated the placement smartly, he added.
“They despatched numerous other folks to the scene as a result of they weren’t positive what was once going down,” he mentioned of first responders.
Kind of two dozen other folks sustained minor accidents amid the chaos, in keeping with native officers.
Roughly 20 other folks arrived at an emergency room on the within sight College of Florida Well being inside a 15-minute length for comparable accidents, the college’s Well being spokesperson Payton Wesner mentioned in an e mail Tuesday.
“Upon an preliminary analysis, the wounds gave the look to be most commonly minor bumps or lacerations. No person was once admitted,” mentioned Wesner.
Campus police additionally mentioned no less than 5 other folks have been handled on the scene for minor accidents. They added that they’ve no reason why to consider that there was once any malicious intent in the back of what came about.
College Police Leader Linda Stump-Kurnick in a observation mentioned, “It was once an coincidence that was once misinterpreted via the group that ended in panic.”