British man dies near Barcelona after music festival chaos

A BRITISH man has died near Barcelona after his body was found floating in an irrigation canal in the town of Viladecans, near El Prat airport, where he had been attending the Elrow music festival.

25-year-old Sam Alger, a Norfolk native working for a football team in Qatar, had been at the event alongside his brother and a group of friends on Sunday June 19, but he disappeared around 10pm and was never seen again, leading his family to set up a Facebook page appealing for assistance, before flying out to help the search.

It appears that he made a run for it after fighting broke out outside the festival, and his lifeless body was unearthed by the Mossos d’Esquadra in the rural Agrari town park on Tuesday June 21, before being removed by firefighters.

There will now be an autopsy to determine cause of death, although initial findings suggest that they are not treating it as suspicious, with no signs of violence on his body, according to police.

Following the tragic discovery, the following statement was posted on Facebook: “We are devastated to announce he was dead at the scene.

“No one can quite believe what has happened and everyone is truly heartbroken. Thank you everyone for the help and support and prayers, we appreciate it so much. Sam was one of the kindest most genuine and loving people anyone could wish to know and to have him taken from us is truly heartbreaking.”

Other festivalgoers posted messages on the Find Sam Alger Facebook page, condemning the poor organisation of the event.

Emma Mason wrote: “I was also at Elrow and left around 11pm and it was an awful situation! They really should of [sic] organised the whole event better! They ran out of water at around 8-9pm and soft drinks shortly after so in my opinion it should have been shut down then.”

Andrea Bainbridge added: “The end of this night was the scariest most unorganised thing I have witnessed.”