Second death following collapse of FC Twente stadium roof

Posted Saturday, July 09, 2011 by theguardian.com

• Fatality confirmed as 24-year-old man from Oldenzaal
• FC Twente team to return from tour of New Zealand

Second death following collapse of FC Twente stadium roof
A second person has died following the collapse of the FC Twente stadium roof.

A second person has died of injuries sustained after a large section of the roof at FC Twente's stadium collapsed. One person was killed and 16 others suffered serious injuries when the disaster happened on Thursday at De Grolsch Veste Stadium.

The Municipality of Enschede confirmed the second fatality, a 24-year-old man from the city of Oldenzaal.

"It is terrible that we again have to mourn a death," the mayor Peter den Oudsten said. "Our thoughts are with his family and those close to him."

The Twente chairman, Joop Munsterman, said the club's players, who are on a tour of New Zealand, are to return home.

Munsterman, who left New Zealand – where the club were due to face the national side at the weekend – as soon as he had been informed of the incident, said: "We wish everyone who is affected in any way a lot of strength and in particular we express our condolences to the families of the deceased.

"It is therefore impossible for us to continue our training camp in New Zealand and we cannot play against New Zealand.

"We did not want to remain such a distance from what happened today. The open day on 17 July will not occur and the other events in the stadium will not proceed until further notice."

Ilse Hoekstra, a spokeswoman on the scene, said a representative from the Dutch public prosecution service had been sent to launch an investigation to determine the cause of the collapse.

Pictures taken from outside the ground showed a large section of the roof had fallen on to a bank of seating already in place behind the goal in the southern end of the stadium.

The work being carried out was part of a development to increase the capacity of the stadium to more than 30,000. The ground only held 13,500 when the 2010 Eredivisie champions moved there in 1998.