SanSalvador
At least 12 dead in stampede at El Salvador stadium
At least 12 people have died in a stampede at Cuscatlan Stadium in El Salvador. photo
© Milton Flores/AP/dpa
At a football game in El Salvador, there is a crowd at the entrance and panic breaks out. At least twelve people die and hundreds are injured. The country’s leadership announces a relentless investigation.
At least 12 people were killed in a stampede during a first division soccer match in El Salvador. Around 100 other people were taken to hospital after the incident at the Cuscatlán stadium in the capital San Salvador, some with serious injuries, as reported by the Central American country’s civil defense on Saturday (local time). According to initial information from the police, the panic broke out when fans tried to get into the stadium to watch a game between teams Alianza and FAS. According to the civil defense, the crowd arose in the ‘Sol General’ stadium area.
El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele announced comprehensive investigations into the causes of the accident. “Everyone is examined: teams, managers, stadiums, ticket offices, leagues, associations, etc.,” Bukele explained on Twitter late Saturday evening. “Whoever the culprits are, they will not go unpunished.”
Unanswered questions about the stampede in El Salvador
The causes of the crowd should be clarified “down to the last detail,” said the country’s police chief, Mauricio Arriaza Chicas, to the Salvadorian newspaper “Diario el Mundo”. For example, the role played by the electronic ticket system is being investigated. On the one hand, there was an oversale of tickets, on the other hand, the WLAN in the area failed, which additionally slowed down admission. According to the police, it is also being determined why only one of two entrances on the south side of the stadium was opened.
The police closed the entrances after 7 p.m. and wouldn’t let fans in who paid for admission, a woman who got into the crowd told the newspaper “La Prensa Gráfica”. “There were children and elderly people, we literally had to rip open the gate to get air because there were a lot of people and we were suffocating.”
According to police chief Arriaza Chicas, between 400 and 500 people came together in the crowd who wanted to see the game. “Some fall, others stay down, get no more oxygen,” said the police chief. “In the end, the death of people is the result.” “La Prensa Gráfica” described the side scrum between FC Alianza and CD FAS as a “human avalanche”. The game was canceled to make the work of the rescue workers easier.
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The Salvadoran Football Federation Fesfut also announced an investigation and expressed “solidarity” with the families of the victims. FIFA President Gianni Infantino called the incident “tragic” and expressed his condolences to the family.
Last fall, 135 people were killed in a stampede at an Indonesian soccer stadium. Among them were more than 40 children.