Colombia bull-running where stand collapse killed 4 people under investigation

BOGOTA (Reuters) – Colombia’s procurator will investigate the official response to the partial collapse of seating at a bull-running event on Sunday, which killed at least four people and injured hundreds.

A section of the three-story wooden stand toppled forward into the ring, where locals were participating in a bull-running event tied to the feast day of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, videos showed.

“I jumped from the second floor and that’s where I broke my foot and the wrist of my right hand,” said Ulices Castro. “It was very tense, like a game of dominoes, which was unraveling until all those boxes came to the ground.”

Those injured are questioning who designed and authorized the wooden structure and whether the wooden boards could have supported the weight of spectators.

The procurator’s office, which is tasked with investigating misconduct by public officials, announced it would investigate the mayor of El Espinal, Juan Carlos Tamayo, on Twitter late on Sunday.

“The mayor did not respond to requests about action plans being carried out to attend to the disaster,” the office said, without providing further details.

The mayor’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Four people were killed in the collapse, civil defense official Luis Fernando Velez told local Blu radio on Monday, and some 280 had been treated for injuries.

(Reporting by Julia Symmes Cobb and Nelson Bocanegra; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)