Video footage from local news channels showed fans streaming onto the pitch in the stadium in Malang after Arema FC lost to Persebaya Surabaya.
At least 174 people were killed and around 180 injured at a soccer match in Indonesia after panicked fans were trampled and crushed trying to flee during a riot, police said on Sunday, in what appeared to be one of the world’s worst stadium disasters.
When supporters of the losing home team invaded the pitch in East Java province on Saturday night to express their frustration, officers fired tear gas in an attempt to control the situation, triggering a stampede and cases of suffocation, East Java police chief Nico Afinta told reporters. “It had gotten anarchic. They started attacking officers, they damaged cars,” Nico said, adding that the crush occurred when fans fled for an exit gate.
#WATCH | At least 127 people died after violence at a football match in Indonesia, last night. The deaths occurred when angry fans invaded a football pitch after a match in East Java
— ANI (@ANI) October 2, 2022
(Video source: Reuters) pic.twitter.com/j7Bet6f9mE
Video footage from local news channels showed fans streaming onto the pitch in the stadium in Malang after Arema FC lost to Persebaya Surabaya. Scuffles can be seen, with what appeared to be tear gas in the air. Videos showed fans charging towards the centre of the field before they scattered, beat back by uniformed officers carrying batons and riot shields, as loud bangs and clouds of smoke erupted in the arena. People jumped over barriers and leaped onto railings as they fled, with the officers beating and kicking those on the field, as spectators looked on from the still-crowded stands.
Images showed people who appeared to have lost consciousness being carried away by other fans.The head of one of the hospitals in the area treating patients told Metro TV that some of the victims had sustained brain injuries and that the dead included a five-year-old child. World soccer’s governing body FIFA specifies in its safety regulations that no firearms or “crowd control gas” should be carried or used by stewards or police.
BREAKING: More than 100 people died after a riot broke out at an Liga 1 football match between Arema and Persebaya at Kanjuruhan Stadium in Malang, Indonesia pic.twitter.com/YsDWQfbkRZ
— Insider Paper (@TheInsiderPaper) October 1, 2022
