A horror stampede at a Guatemala music festival has killed nine people - including two 12-year-old children as festival goers rushed to escape.
Emergency services and police were called to the large rock concert in the western Guatemalan city of Quetzaltenango in the early hours of Thursday.
Six people were injured at the outdoor festival, according to Maria del Carmen Sajquim, spokesperson for Guatemala's Western Regional Hospital.
The injured people were transferred to the hospital and were believed to have suffered fractures, local firefighters said earlier on Twitter.
The music festival is where more than 10 bands play as an annual event marking independence day in the Central American country.
Witnesses at the scene said the venue only had two exits and that chaos ensued as everyone rushed the exits.
The stampede is just one of the many deadly accidents at public events that Latin America has witnessed in recent years.
Four people in June were killed and about 70 injured when part of a stand collapsed at a bullring in the town of El Espinal, Colombia.
In one of region's most tragic events, a 2004 fire at a Buenos Aires nightclub killed 194 people after a concert-goer set off a flare in the packed venue soon after the Callejeros rock band came on stage.
