‘Stampede’ at Cancún airport blamed on clumsy tourist
The Mercury News
“Gunshots” that created panic in Cancún’s airport were apparently the noise of a photo exhibit knocked over by a tourist.
Three loud cracks set off a “stampede” of hundreds of people Monday at the Mexican resort city’s airport in which elderly travelers were knocked down and children separated from parents, CBS News reported. Images show people huddled behind furniture and counters, and a CBS producer who was at the scene said some had apparently been injured in the crush.
The U.S. State Department issued an alert saying it was “aware of reports of a security incident” and advising concerned parties to attempt to contact “loved ones” who might be at the airport.
But shortly afterward, Mexico’s National Guard posted its own tweet: “The available information indicates that the sound could have been caused by the fall of three billboards accidentally knocked down by a tourist.”
The tweet included images of a free-standing 6-foot-tall panel lying on the floor next to the terminal’s Bubba Gump restaurant. Photographs are displayed on a row of the wheeled partitions.
A “code red” alert brought forces from the National Guard and the army, and Terminal 3 was evacuated. The public security chief of the state of Quintana Roo later announced no evidence of a shooting had been found; he also said there were no injuries.
