German Engineers Test New Technology for Crowd Control

July's stampede at the Duisburg Love Parade left 21 dead.

The event sent shockwaves throughout Germany.

Now German engineers believe they've devised a system that will help emergency services prevent such events from happening again.

The new technology uses high-resolution cameras on board a light aircraft and can monitor large crowds.

Head engineer Peter Reinartz says the system can efficiently survey large gatherings .

[Peter Reinartz, DLR Engineering Head of Department]:
"With these pictures you can analyze large parts of cities in a very short period of time to say where there are traffic jams, what is happening and whether a road is no longer accessible, did bridges collapse, and so on. It's about much more than just crowd analysis."

He is reluctant to claim the technology alone can prevent a repeat tragedy. But Reinartz says it will help emergency services predict problems at events.

[Peter Reinartz, DLR Engineering Head of Department]:
"The police or the fire department could make use of them directly in order to create data in close to real time and deliver information in the event of large crowd gatherings or disasters."

The project is still in the early stages, but engineers hope to have it up and running within two years.