NEW DELHI: At least 125 people were killed and around 180 injured in a football match a
after panicked fans were trampled and crushed as they tried to escape during a riot, authorities said Sunday.
In what appears to be one of the worst stadium disasters in the world, more than 300 people were rushed to nearby hospitals, but many died en route or under treatment.
Police, who described the riots as “riots”, said they tried to force fans to return to the stands and fired tear gas after two officers died.
Many of the victims were trampled or suffocated to death, according to police.
Survivors described panicking onlookers in a packed crowd as tear gas rained down on them.
Saturday at 8pm local time, match between Arema FC And Persebaya Surabaya kicked off at Kanjuruhan stadium, Malang inside East JavaIndonesia.
Police said there were around 42,000 spectators in the stadium, all supporters of Arema because the organizer had banned Persebaya fans in an attempt to avoid brawls.
As soccer is Indonesia’s most popular sport, fan violence during league matches is a recurring problem with huge crowds scrambling for high-octane clashes in the 18-team top flight.
Shortly before 10pm, the match ended with the home team Arema losing 3-2 to Persebaya Surabaya.
Arema FC and Persebaya Surabaya are longtime rivals and this was the first time in over two decades that Arema have lost to Surabaya.
Arema’s disappointing defeat prompted angry viewers to ask for answers.
Video footage of the incident shows fans clashing with police on the ground.
“He had become an anarchist. They started attacking agents, they damaged cars,” East Java Police Chief Nico Afinta said, adding that the crush happened when fans fled to an exit gate.
Fan violence is an enduring problem in Indonesia, where deep-seated rivalries have previously turned into deadly confrontations.
Police action and violence
The images showed people who appeared to have lost consciousness as they were being taken away by other fans.
The police chief later claimed that a crush occurred at gate 10 of the stadium.
Subsequently, the riots spread outside the stadium, where fans and police were involved in further clashes. At least five police cars were overturned and set on fire, while many others were damaged.
Hundreds of onlookers rushed to an exit gate to avoid tear gas, causing a stampede that trampled or choked 34 to death almost instantly.
According to a Twitter account posted by a fan, screams were heard near the exit gate as fans attempted to escape with women and children among those involved in the crush.
At 9:30 (0230 GMT), the death toll was 158, by 10:30 the figure had risen to 174 deaths, including children and two police officers.
The Indonesian government subsequently revised the toll to 125.
Saturday’s riots and stampede will add to the long list of events where fans died to support their football team.
On Sunday morning, Indonesia’s president Joko Wido orders the football federation to suspend all matches in the national top flight, the BRI Liga 1, until the match safety investigations have been completed.
Prior to Widodo’s announcement, the Indonesian Football Association (PSSI) apologized to the families of the victims and suspended football matches in the Indonesian top league, BRI Liga 1, for a week.
He also banned Arema FC from hosting home games for the remainder of the season.
The president orders the investigation
Widodo said he hoped “this tragedy will be the last football tragedy in Indonesia”.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino said the stampede to the stadium “is a dark day for all involved in football and a tragedy beyond comprehension”.
Flowers are placed by Arema FC fans outside Kanjuruhan Stadium, where riots broke out on Saturday evening (AP)
The Indonesian football federation has banned Arema from hosting football matches for the remainder of the season.
Human rights group Amnesty International urged Indonesia to investigate the use of tear gas in the stadium and ensure that those found in the violations are tried in a public hearing.
Rules on tear gas, overcapacity
The Indonesian human rights commission will investigate safety on the ground, including the use of tear gas, its commissioner told Reuters.
The head of the country’s security minister, Mahfud MD, said in an Instagram post that the stadium was filled beyond his capacity. He said 42,000 tickets have been issued for a stadium which is expected to hold only 38,000 people.
Since the 1990s, dozens of fans have been killed in football-related violence.
Between 1994 and 2019, 74 fans died in football-related violence, according to a report by the Australian Broadcasting Corp.
However, Sunday’s death toll made this match at Kanjuruhan Stadium one of the deadliest episodes in football history.
Other disasters at the stadium include a 1989 crush on the stands of the British stadium in Hillsborough, which resulted in the deaths of 97 Liverpool fans, and the 2012 Port Said stadium tragedy in Egypt, where 74 people died in clashes.
In 1964, 320 people were killed and more than 1,000 injured during a stampede in a Peru-Argentina Olympic qualifier match at the Lima National Stadium.
Why does football generate violence?
Soccer is the most popular sport in Indonesia and the national championship is widely followed. Fans are strongly attached to their clubs and such fanaticism often ends in violence and hooliganism. But the riots among the fans usually take place outside the stadium.
The best known feud is that between Persija Jakarta and Persib Bandung. Fans of the two clubs clashed in several matches which resulted in death. In 2018, a supporter of Persija Jakarta was beaten to death by rivals of Persib Bandung.
Indonesian football has also been plagued with problems on the international stage. In 2019, brawls broke out between supporters of the Indonesia and Malaysia archirivals during this year’s FIFA World Cup qualifiers. In September of the same year, Malaysian fans were threatened and shot during a World Cup qualifier match in Jakarta, and the visiting minister of sports from Malaysia had to be evacuated from the stadium after the outbreak of violence. Two months later, fans threw rockets and bottles at each other in another match in Kuala Lumpur.
Also in 2019, after losing in the finals of the U-22 match against Vietnam at the Southeast Asian Games, Indonesian fans turned to social media to insult, harass and send death threats to Vietnamese players and even their families.
In June, two Persib Bandung fans died as they pushed into the Bandung stadium to watch the 2022 President’s Cup. The angry fans became aggressive because the field officials did not allow them to enter the stadium which was already full.
