AROUND THE MAJORS

Fans rushed the stage during a Pearl Jam concert at one of Europe’s largest rock festivals Friday, crushing to death at least eight people and injuring three others, Danish police said.

The injuries occurred while the rock band was performing on the main Orange Stage at the annual open-air Roskilde Festival near Copenhagen, the capital.

“Several people were crushed or trampled to death,” police said in a statement. The rush occurred at 11:40 p.m., police said.

Members of Pearl Jam implored the crowd to move back because people were being pressed against the stage, and the message was repeated over the loudspeakers, Danish radio said.

Ten ambulances rushed to the scene, according to radio reports.

Pearl Jam broke off its performance, and the Cure canceled its show, which was to have followed on the Orange Stage. But concerts on six other stages continued, festival spokesman Leif Skov said.

The annual Roskilde Festival, which last year drew about 100,000 people, began Thursday and is scheduled to end Sunday.

The festival, first held in 1971, was inspired by the 1969 Woodstock Festival in the United States. It is held annually on a farm in Roskilde, 25 miles west of Copenhagen.

In 1979, 11 people were trampled to death in Cincinnati as they rushed for choice seats before the start of a concert by the British rock band the Who.

Last year, 54 people were killed and 150 injured in Minsk, Belarus, in a stampede that began when a hailstorm hit and hundreds of fans at a concert ran to a subway station for cover.