Panic took over a Florida prayer vigil for victims of the phobia assaults in Israel on Monday evening, leading to a number of accidents after the group abruptly took off in a stampede, authorities mentioned.
Students had gathered on the University of Florida in Gainesville to pay their respects to the tons of of individuals killed in Israel since Saturday when police mentioned the group turned spooked simply earlier than 9 p.m.
Someone attending the vigil fainted, prompting others to ask for somebody to name 911, the college’s police division mentioned in a press release.
“The call was misunderstood by the crowd, which dispersed in a panic,” police mentioned.
Video taken moments earlier than the push and posted to social media reveals attendees quietly listening to a speaker when a wave of screams emerges from the space, prompting everybody to run.
The college has one of many largest Jewish pupil populations on the planet, in response to native station WCJB, resulting in many being on edge as a result of ongoing violence abroad.
Nick VanZandt, a University of Florida pupil who shot video and took pictures of the scene’s chaotic aftermath, advised HuffPost there was “some tension” and “very emotional scenes” previous to the panic, which left him with “a few scrapes and bruises.”
There didn’t look like anybody protesting the occasion, nevertheless, and native legislation enforcement dealt with the scenario nicely, he added.
“They sent a lot of people to the scene because they weren’t sure what was happening,” he mentioned of first responders.
Roughly two dozen folks sustained minor accidents amid the chaos, in response to native officers.
Approximately 20 folks arrived at an emergency room on the close by University of Florida Health inside a 15-minute interval for associated accidents, the college’s Health spokesperson Payton Wesner mentioned in an e-mail Tuesday.

“Upon an initial evaluation, the injuries seemed to be mostly minor bumps or lacerations. No one was admitted,” mentioned Wesner.
Campus police additionally mentioned at the very least 5 folks have been handled on the scene for minor accidents. They added that they haven’t any motive to consider that there was any malicious intent behind what occurred.
University Police Chief Linda Stump-Kurnick in a press release mentioned, “It was an accident that was misinterpreted by the crowd that led to panic.”