Indonesia: more than 120 dead in violence after a football match
Police and soldiers amid tear gas smoke after clashes between fans during a football match at Kanjuruhan Stadium in Malang, East Java, Indonesia, Saturday, October 1, 2022. AP - Yudha Prabowo
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
At least 127 people died on Saturday evening (October 1st) in Indonesia due to a crowd movement caused by angry fans who invaded a football field after a match and the firing of tear gas by the police, announced the police.
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Fans of the Arema FC team entered the pitch at the Kanjuruhan stadium in the eastern city of Malang after their team lost 3-2 to Persebaya Surabaya.
It was the first time in more than twenty years that Arema FC had lost to their great rival.
Police, who called the event a "
riot
", tried to persuade fans to return to the stands and fired tear gas after two officers were killed.
Many victims were trampled to death.
“
In the incident, 127 people died, two of whom were police officers.
Thirty-four people died inside the stadium and the rest succumbed to hospital
,” local police chief Nico Afinta said in a statement.
“
At one point, they headed for the exit.
But there was a build-up (of people) and in that process of build-up (people) got gasped, lack of oxygen
,” he explained.
Towards an investigation
The Indonesian government apologized for this incident and promised to investigate the circumstances of this crowd movement.
"
We are sorry for this incident (...) It is a regrettable incident which 'hurts' our football at a time when fans can watch a match in a stadium
", declared the Indonesian Minister of Sports and Youth Zainudin Amali at the Kompas channel.
“
We will thoroughly examine the organization of the match and the number of supporters (in the stadium).
Will we ban the presence of supporters at matches again?
We will discuss
it,” he added.
(With
AFP
)
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