Lessons from a crowd behavior expert

Mehdi Moussaïd, a research scientist in Berlin who studies crowd behavior at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, came up with tips to survive a dangerous crowd situation:

Keep your eyes open for danger signs

Leave as soon as you sense the crowd getting too dense

Stay standing, and don't put a backpack on the ground

Lack of oxygen is the killer in crowds, so preserve space around your chest

Don't push. Move with the crowd

Avoid walls and solid objects

Learn to detect crowd density

If a crowd gets unsafe, look out for others