At least 174 people have died in a stampede at an Indonesian football match that has become one of the world’s worst stadium disasters.
About 180 were also hurt in the crush after home team Arema FC lost to bitter rivals at the overcrowded stadium late on Saturday in Malang, East Java.
The stampede took place after police tear-gassed fans who invaded the pitch.
As panic spread, thousands surged towards Kanjuruhan stadium’s exits, where many suffocated.
Initial reports put the death toll at about 130, but Emil Dardak, East Java’s deputy governor, later announced a significant rise that put the figure at 174, adding that 11 more people were seriously injured.
President Joko Widodo has ordered that all matches in Indonesia’s top league must be stopped until an investigation has been carried out.
Indonesia’s chief security minister said spectators exceeded Kanjuruhan stadium’s stated 38,000 capacity by around 4,000 people.
Videos from the stadium show fans running onto the pitch after the final whistle marked the home team’s 2-3 defeat.
Police Chief in East Java, Nico Afinta, said Police then fired tear gas, leading to a crowd stampede and cases of suffocation.
He added that fleeing fans “went out to one point at the exit and then there was a build-up which in the process of accumulation led to shortness of breath, lack of oxygen”.
Videos on social media show fans clambering over fences to escape. Separate videos appear to show lifeless bodies on the floor.
Fifa, the world’s governing football body, states that no “crowd control gas” should be carried or used by stewards or police at matches.
The Indonesian football association (PSSI) said it had launched an investigation, adding that the incident had “tarnished the face of Indonesian football”.
Violence at football matches is not new in Indonesia, and Arema FC and Persebaya Surabaya are long-time rivals.
However, Persebaya Surabaya fans were banned from buying tickets for the game because of fears of clashes.
Chief Security Minister Mahfud MD posted on Instagram that 42,000 tickets had been sold for the match at the Kanjuruhan stadium.
President Widodo called for this to be the “last soccer tragedy in the nation” after ordering that all Liga 1 games should be paused pending an investigation.
The stampede is one of the worst of a tragically long line of stadium disasters.
In 1964, a total of 320 people were killed and more than 1,000 injured during a stampede at a Peru-Argentina Olympic qualifier in Lima.
In 1985, 39 people died and 600 were hurt at the Heysel stadium in Brussels, Belgium, when fans were crushed against a wall that then collapsed during the European Cup final between Liverpool (England) and Juventus (Italy).
In the UK, a crush developed at the Hillsborough stadium in Sheffield, resulting in the deaths of 97 Liverpool fans attending the club’s FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest.
(BBC)
