Guatemala City, Sep 15 (AP) At least nine people died and some 20 were injured in a stampede in Guatemala early Thursday as the country celebrated its independence, according to firefighters.

The victims apparently died in a crush of people who were trying to enter an outdoor music concert.

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Amilcar Rivas, Quetzaltenango city manager, said that event organisers did not have a grip on security and crowd control. He said the event did have a permit.

Quetzaltenango, Guatemala's second largest city, is about 125 miles (200 kms) west of Guatemala City.

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Guatemala is celebrating Thursday 201 years of independence from Spain. (AP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)