Minivan Runs Into Crowd After Pinkpop Festival In Holland, Kills One

A minivan that was steered into a crowd leaving the festival site of Pinkpop in Landgraaf, Netherlands, killed one person and left three more severely injured. Police have reportedly arrested one man.

PIROSCHKA VAN DE WOUW/AFP/Getty Images – A sad end to a great festival
This picture taken near the site of the Pinkpop festival in Landgraaf, June 18, shows police cars after a van slammed into pedestrians, killing one and injuring three.

The incident occurred at around 4 a.m. on Monday morning, June 18, hours after Bruno Mars had played the closing show of Pinkpop 2018. Many people were still leaving the festival site, returning to their tents.

The van driver committed hit-and-run, which sparked a police search that crossed over the borders of Belgium and Germany. The van was found abandoned on the street on which the incident had occurred. It is unclear whether the man was acting on purpose. He reported himself to police in Amsterdam, some 220 kilometers north of Landgraaf.

He’s being held on suspicion of manslaughter and attempted manslaughter according to a news update on the municipality of Landgraaf’s homepage.

At this morning’s festival press conference, Pinkpop founder Jan Smeets said: “Me and my team are all very shocked by the situation and all our thoughts are with the family and friends of the victims.”

He added that year’s Pinkpop was going to be “one of the best editions is our history” with 45,000 camping weekend visitors, and 25,000, 21,000, and 20,000 visitors per day. “Three days of good music and great weather and then this happened, it’s unbelievable,” said Smeets.

He told the BBC that it had been the first death in the festivals 49-year history.

Just three days ago, Smeets had renewed the contract with the municipality, tying Pinkpop to Landgraaf until 2040. “Pinkpop belongs to Landgraaf and Landgraaf belongs to Pinkpop,” he said.