At least 174 people died and about 180 injured were taken to hospital on Saturday, after rioting following a local football match in Indonesia’s East Java province.
Arima fans in Kanjuruhan, in the eastern city of Malang, stormed the pitch after their side’s 3-2 loss to Persibaya Surabaya, their first loss in more than two decades against their arch-rivals.
A video on social media showed fans running onto the pitch after the final whistle.
The stampede occurred after police fired tear gas at fans who stormed the pitch.
As the fans panicked, thousands rushed to the exits of Kanjuruhan Stadium, where many choked.
An eyewitness named Doi told Indonesia’s Kompass website that he “saw many people get run over” as everyone ran away.
Initial reports put the death toll at 130, and officials later announced a significant increase in the numbers to 174, with 11 seriously injured.
President Joko Widodo has ordered the suspension of all matches in the Indonesian Super League until an investigation is carried out.
The International Football Association (FIFA), the world’s governing body for football, stresses that “crowd control gases” should not be carried or used by referees or police at matches.
Videos from the stadium show fans running onto the pitch after the final whistle declared the home team’s 2-3 defeat, with police firing tear gas in response.
“The match became chaos. The fans started attacking the officers, damaging cars,” said Nico Aventa, East Java’s police chief, adding that two police officers were among the dead.
“We would like to point out that not all the fans participated in the chaos, but only about 3,000 entered the stadium,” the police chief added.
And about the reason for the exacerbation of the disaster, he explained that all the fans tried to escape from the stadium by leaving “one exit point. Then a crowding occurred, which caused the fans to pile up on top of each other and push them hard, which led to the crushing and suffocation of some and the lack of oxygen.”
Videos on social media show fans climbing fences to escape. Separate videos show bodies lying on the ground.
The Indonesian league matches were suspended for a week after the incident.
photo released, EPA
Effects of the accident on the field
Meanwhile, the stadium was badly damaged, and two cars, including a police car, were burnt.
The Indonesian government apologized for the incident and promised to investigate the circumstances of the stampede.
“We regret this incident… this is an unfortunate incident,” Indonesian Sports and Youth Minister Zinedine Amali told Kompas. “Our football at a time when fans can watch football matches from the stadium.”
He added, “We will carefully evaluate the organization of the match and the attendance of the fans. Will we return to preventing the fans from attending the matches? This is what we will discuss.”
FIFA states that gas should not be used for crowd control by police during football matches.
Violence in Indonesian football stadiums is not new. Fans of Persibaya Surabaya were prevented from buying tickets for the match for fear of violence and clashes.
But Chief Security Minister Mahfoud MD stated in an Instagram message that about 42,000 tickets had been sold, while the stadium had a capacity of only 38,000 fans.
photo released, EPA
Police firing tear gas prompted crowds to stampede and cause suffocation
Indonesian President Joko Widodo said he hoped this would be “the last football tragedy in the country”, after ordering the suspension of all Indonesian league matches until investigations were completed.
This tragedy is the latest in the history of stampede disasters in football stadiums and stands.
In 1964, about 320 people were killed and more than 1,000 injured during an Olympic qualifying stampede between Peru and Argentina in Lima. In 1985, 39 people were killed and 600 injured at Heysel Stadium in Brussels, Belgium, when fans were crushed in front of a wall that collapsed after It was during the European Cup final between Liverpool (England) and Juventus (Italy).
In the United Kingdom, 97 Liverpool fans died in 1989 at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield.