At least 30 killed in Haiti stampede at Citadelle event

At least 30 people were killed and dozens more injured when a stampede tore through the entrance of Haiti’s Citadelle Laferrière in Milot, turning a tourist gathering at one of the country’s best-known landmarks into a deadly crush. Authorities warned the toll could rise as rescuers searched for survivors in the Nord department.

Jean Henri Petit, who heads civil protection in northern Haiti, said the stampede began near the fortress entrance and was worsened by heavy rain. The site, also known as Citadelle Henri, sits high above Milot and draws visitors to the early-19th-century stronghold commissioned by Henri Christophe after Haiti’s independence. The Prime Minister’s office said the event was a tourist activity that brought together many young people, underscoring how quickly a crowded celebration at a historic site can become a mass-casualty emergency when control of entry points and movement breaks down.

Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé expressed condolences and said authorities had been mobilized. The government also said an official investigation had opened to determine exactly how the crush unfolded and whether security arrangements, access control and emergency response were adequate for the crowd that gathered at the mountain fortress. Local media said the death toll reached at least 30, while hospitals and civil protection officials continued to account for the injured.

Unverified local reports and witness accounts also circulated claims that police fired tear gas to break up a fight near the Citadelle and that the gas may have helped trigger panic. Authorities have not confirmed that account, and the investigation is expected to examine the sequence of events from the first disturbance to the crush itself.

The loss reverberated far beyond Milot because the Citadelle Laferrière is more than a tourist attraction. It is part of the National History Park of Haiti, alongside Sans-Souci and Ramiers, and was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1982. The deaths come against the backdrop of a wider security and humanitarian crisis in Haiti, where gangs control large parts of Port-au-Prince and have complicated public safety, transport and emergency response. In a country that has already endured the 2021 earthquake and a deadly fuel-tanker explosion near Miragoâne in 2024, the disaster at the Citadelle exposed how fragile crowd safety and emergency planning remain at a site central to Haiti’s history and national identity.