/ 04 October 2022

Tragedy at the soccer

Image source: Unsplash
Image source: Unsplash

At least 125 people have died, including 32 children aged between 3-17yo, as a result of a stampede at a top league soccer game in Indonesia’s East Java on Saturday night. It is one of the worst stadium disasters in history. What happened was home side Arema FC played Persebaya Surabaya at Stadion Kanjuruhan and lost. That saw about 3,000 fans storm the pitch, where they clashed with police. Officers fired tear gas, triggering the stampede to the exit, and some suffocated in the crush while others were trampled to death. Attention has turned to the 38,000-capacity stadium with officials claiming 42,000 tickets were issued. President Joko Widodo has ordered a suspension until an investigation is wrapped up. And FIFA, world soccer’s governing body, said it was a “dark day for all involved”. No stranger to crowd management issues, FIFA specifies in its safety regulations that no firearms or crowd control gas should be carried or used by stewards or police.

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