low graphics version | feedback | help
|
 The BBC's Tom Carver"Dozens were buried"  real 28k  The BBC's Duncan Kennedy"The whole tragedy has come as an unbearable shock"  real 28k |
Memorial for bonfire dead
Rescuers remove the 11th body from the rubble |
A memorial service has been held in Texas for students crushed to death when a bonfire which they were building collapsed.
Eleven students from Texas A&M University died when the huge stack fell inwards.
Dozens of students were climbing on the stack at the university, in College Station, Texas, when it suddenly collapsed at 0230CST (0830GMT) on Thursday.
The last two bodies were recovered from the bonfire at 0215 on Friday - almost 24 hours after the structure collapsed.
Srudents pray at the site of the collapsed bonfire |
At the memorial service, A&M University President Ray Bowen said: "This has been a day of unspeakable grief and sorrow."
Former President George Bush, whose presidential library is located at Texas A&M, and Texas Lieutenant Governor Rick Perry, who graduated from the school in 1972, attended the service.
The traditional lighting of the 40ft (12m) high bonfire was cancelled although some students said their dead colleagues would have wanted the ceremony to continue.
The only other time that the bonfire lighting has been cancelled was after President Kennedy's assassination.
Trapped for hours
Some 28 students were injured, five of them critically. For hours, rescuers pulled people free from between the logs. One person was trapped for more than six hours.
Students building the bonfire |
The logs had been piled up for the traditional bonfire at the university, about 80 miles (130km) north-west of Houston.
Lit the evening before the match, tradition has it that if the logs topple before midnight, then A&M will lose the game. But if the logs burn into the morning, A&M will be victorious.
Thousands of logs are stacked high to build the bonfire, using cranes, tractors and crews of students.
In 1994, a stack collapsed and a second was built and set on fire.
 |
 E-mail this story to a friend |
|
Links to more Americas stories
|
Search BBC News Online |
|
|
 Advanced search options | |
| |
 | |
 | |
| |
|
| BBC RADIO NEWS |
| |
| |
|
| BBC ONE TV NEWS |
| |
| |
| WORLD NEWS SUMMARY |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| PROGRAMMES GUIDE |
|
|
See also: |
|
|
|
 |
18 Nov 99 | Americas |
|
In pictures: Texas bonfire tragedy |
| |
|
|
18 Nov 99 | Americas |
|
Students crushed in bonfire tragedy |
| |
|
|
Internet links: |
|
|
|
|
|
St Joseph Bonfire Emergency Update |
| |
|
|
Texas A&M University |
| |
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites |
|
Links to other Americas stories are at the foot of the page.
~RS~a~RS~international~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~30~RS~)