At least 30 people were killed on Saturday in a stampede at Haiti’s Laferrière Citadel World Heritage Site, with authorities warning that the death toll could rise.
Jean Henri Petit, head of Civil Protection for Haiti’s Nord Department, said the 19th-century fortress was packed with students and visitors, who had gathered for annual celebrations marking the building’s UNESCO listing.
Petit said the stampede occurred at the entrance to the mountaintop site and that rain exacerbated the disaster.
Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé said in a statement that he extended “his sincere condolences to the bereaved families" and assured them of his "profound solidarity during this time of mourning and great suffering."
Fils-Aimé added that the incident occurred during a “tourist activity involving many young people.”
The statement said that authorities had been placed on “maximum alert” to provide care and assistance to the bereaved and their friends and relatives.
“The government is monitoring the situation carefully and urges people to be calm and show caution, while waiting for the results of investigations to determine the exact circumstances of this tragedy,” the statement added.
Citadelle Laferrière was commissioned by Haitian revolutionary Henri Christophe after the Haitian Revolution to help defend the newly independent country from potential French attacks.
The deadly stampede comes as Haiti is grappling with widespread violence by gangs that have massacred civilians, as well as an increasingly deadly crackdown by security forces.
The island nation has also been the site of various disasters in recent years, including a 2024 fuel tank explosion that killed two dozen people, another fuel tank blast in 2021 that killed 90 people and an earthquake that left some 2,000 people dead that same year.
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