In one of the deadliest stadium tragedies in history, a stampede and violence at an Indonesian soccer event left at least 174 people dead and 180 injured, according to officials on Sunday.
East Java police chief Nico Afinta told reporters that when angry home team supporters broke into the field late on Saturday in Malang, the province, cops used tear gas to try to contain the situation, which caused a stampede and incidences of suffocation.
‘It had become chaotic. They began assaulting police officers, causing damage to automobiles,’ Nico added, ‘the crowd swarmed to an exit gate as they escaped.’
Around 10 pm, fans could be seen rushing onto the field after Arema FC lost 3-2 to Persebaya Surabaya in video footage from local news outlets (1500 GMT). There are visible scuffles and what appears to be tear gas in the air.
Images showed people being taken away by other supporters who appeared to have lost consciousness.
A five-year-old child was among the dead, according to the director of one of the local hospitals caring for patients, who also revealed to Metro TV that some of the casualties had suffered brain injuries.
Joko Widodo, the president of Indonesia, urged officials to carefully assess match security and expressed the hope that this would be ‘the last soccer tragedy in the country.’
The president, Jokowi, gave the Football Association of Indonesia the order to halt all matches in the BRI Liga 1—Indonesia’s highest league—until an inquiry was finished.
No guns or ‘crowd control gas’ should be carried or deployed by stewards or police, according to FIFA, which oversees international soccer.
A inquiry for comment regarding whether the East Java police were aware of such rules was not immediately answered.
FIFA has asked Indonesia’s PSSI football association for a report on the incident, and a PSSI team has been sent to Malang to investigate, according to PSSI secretary general Yunus Nusi.
Post Your Comments