Pressure builds on German mayor to resign over deadly Love Parade

The mayor of the German city where 21 people were crushed to death at a music festival last weekend is facing growing pressure to resign amid nationwide outrage over the tragedy.

Mayor Adolf Sauerland appears to be losing support even from his own conservative party, the Associated Press said Friday.

Wolfgang Bosbach, a leading lawmaker with Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Party, CDU, said late Thursday on public broadcaster ZDF that the mayor bears political responsibility for possible mistakes made by the city.

If Sauerland was to resign from his post he would lose all retirement entitlements as a civil servant, German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine reported citing Deutsche Presse-Agentur, dpa.

Over 200 people demonstrated Thursday in front of the Duisburg city hall demanding that Sauerland resign, according to the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger website. Anger has been building in recent days ahead of the memorial for the victims planned for Saturday, which Merkel and President Christian Wulff are to attend. The crush occurred in a jammed tunnel that was the sole entrance to the festival grounds. More than 500 people also were injured.