Riots and stampedes at Indonesian football stadiums have killed at least 174 people and injured dozens more.
The tragedy in the eastern city of Malang on Saturday night was one of the deadliest stadium disasters in the world.
Thousands of Arema FC fans stormed the pitch of Kanjuruhan Stadium after the team lost 3-2 to Persebaya Surabaya, East Java Provincial Police said. Police tried to contain the “riot” by firing tear gas, sparking a stampede as panicked fans rushed for the exit.
Some were suffocated in the chaos, others were trampled to death. About 34 people died on the spot.
The death toll has climbed to 174, while more than 100 injured are receiving intensive treatment at eight hospitals, East Java Deputy Governor Emil Dardak said in an interview with Kompas TV on Sunday afternoon. Eleven of them are in critical condition, he said.
“The death toll was 158 at 9:30am (0230 GMT), rising to 174 at 10:30am,” Dudak said.
One of the victims was five years old, a hospital director told local television.
Video footage from a local news channel showed fans flocking to the pitch of the Kanjurujan Stadium in Malang after Arema FC lost to Persebaya in Surabaya. The melee could be seen and there appeared to be tear gas in the air. The images also showed people who appeared to have lost consciousness being taken away by other fans.
The stadium, which has a capacity of 42,000, authorities said was sold out. About 3,000 people stormed the field, police said. Vehicles outside the stadium were also burned, including a police car.
Survivors described panic in the crowd as tear gas rained down.
“The police fired tear gas and people rushed out unconsciously, shoving each other and causing many victims,” a 43-year-old spectator told AFP. “Nothing happened, no riot. I don’t know what was the problem, They fired tear gas all of a sudden. That’s what shocked me, didn’t they think of the child, woman?”
league suspended
President Joko Widodo ordered an investigation into the tragedy, a safety review of all football matches, and directed the country’s football federation to suspend all games until “safety improvements” were completed.
“I deeply regret this tragedy and I hope this football tragedy will be the last tragedy for our country,” Widodo said.
Fan violence is a long-standing problem in Indonesia, with fierce competition between clubs sometimes leading to violence among supporters. Arema FC and Persebaya Surabaya are longtime rivals, whose fans are not allowed to buy tickets for Saturday’s game due to fears of violence.
Mahfud MD, Indonesia’s coordinating minister for political, legal and security affairs, said organizers ignored the authorities’ advice to hold the games in the afternoon rather than the evening. He also said the government only proposed to print 38,000 tickets, but 42,000 were sold out. “The government has made improvements to the implementation of football matches…and will continue to improve. But the sport, loved by the wider community, often stirs up sudden expressions of emotion from supporters,” he said in an Instagram post.
World football’s governing body FIFA, in its safety regulations, states that stewards or police officers must not carry or use firearms or “crowd control gas”. East Java police did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether they were aware of such regulations.
Turning to FIFA’s rules, Amnesty International criticized the use of tear gas in stadiums and urged authorities to “carry out prompt, thorough and independent investigations” and “ensure that those found to have violated the rules are in open court. not just internal or administrative sanctions.”
“This loss of life is beyond question,” said Usman Hamid, executive director of Amnesty International Indonesia.
The Indonesian Football Federation (PSSI) said it will send its own investigation team to Malang to find out the cause of the crash. It also banned Arema football club from hosting home games for the remainder of the season.
“We express our apologies and apologies to the families and parties of the victims of the incident,” PSSI chairman Mochamad Iriawan said.
The tragedy comes as Indonesia is scheduled to host the FIFA U-20 World Cup in May and June next year. They are also one of three countries bidding to host next year’s Asian Cup, the European equivalent of continental Europe, after China withdrew from the hosts.
Al Jazeera’s Jessica Washington, reporting from the Indonesian capital Jakarta, said Saturday’s disaster was “historic”.
“Violence and riots are common in Indonesian football, but we’ve never seen anything like this before,” she said.
“This is a historic tragedy, not just in Indonesian football, but international football. It’s one of the biggest tragedies to happen to the sport, in terms of fan violence, in terms of fans’ deaths in games, ‘ she added.
Other stadium disasters include the 1964 Peru-Argentina Olympic qualifying match at the National Stadium in Lima, which killed some 320 people, and the 2012 Port Said Stadium tragedy in Egypt, in which 74 people were killed in clashes.
In 1989, some 96 Liverpool fans were crushed to death in England when an overcrowded and fenced paddock collapsed at Sheffield’s Hillsborough Stadium.
