Monday, August 10, 2009

Peru: 25 hurt at Iquitos gay bar after tear-gas canisters are thrown on the dance floor

Perú's tabloid newspaper Trome is reporting that 25 people were treated for trauma and asphyxia on early Saturday morning after two live tear-gas canisters were thrown inside a gay bar in Iquitos and the more than 250 clients inside the building rushed for the doors. An excerpt from the article:
The incident happened at 2:40 yesterday morning, when two men with military garb threw a suspicious black bag inside the dance room, taking advantage of the confusion, since 250 were dancing, drinking and having fun, while they waited for the "Miss Mistika 2009" beauty pageant to begin.

"Madame Francesca", one of those present, saw the strange bag package and opened it, finding two live tear-gas bombs that had yet to detonate. But immediately she began to scream "A bomb! A bomb!", and that was enough to start a stampede of gays, lesbians and 'trans'.

Miss "Mistika" called the incident as an affront to the gay community in Loreto. "Why do they want to kill us? We are human, we don't bother anyone. A disgrace almost happened, many of the girls are hurt and scared, respect us, please!" she said.

This is the only report I have been able to find online about the incident. It doesn't say if anyone sustained any serious injuries but it certainly seems that the outcome might have been much worse. It's also unclear, from the article, whether the canisters actually went off or whether those with symptoms of asphyxia suffered them as a result of being crushed during the rush to get out of the bar.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

al carajo con esos fucking homofobicos q tiraron el gas lacrimogeno!

Fuck the homophobes who threw the tear gas!