Jakarta — At least 125 people died and hundreds more were injured after police fired tear gas to disperse rioting football fans in Indonesia, in one of the world's worst stadium tragedies on Oct. 1.
The disaster on Saturday night at the Kanjuruhan Stadium in Malang city prompted Indonesian President Joko Widodo to order the suspension of the top-flight Liga 1 competition pending a review. A security and government panel have now been created to investigate the event.
Most of the victims died of a lack of oxygen during a stampede after thousands of fans invaded the pitch as hosts Arema FC lost 3-2 to rival East Java club Persebaya Surabaya, police said.
Authorities had earlier put the death toll at 175, but the police later revised the figure down to 125, saying the mistake was due to some bodies having been counted more than once.
"Based on verification by the [police] Disaster Victim Identification unit and the health office, the number is 125," national police chief Listyo Sigit Prabowo said late on Sunday.
More than 300 people were injured, some seriously, officials said.
East Java police chief Nico Afinto said there were few Persebaya fans as they were banned from attending the match in East Java province given the fierce rivalry between the two Liga 1 clubs.
The riot also spread outside of the stadium. Eight vehicles were torched and parts of the stadium were badly damaged, he said in a statement.
Witnesses told local television that police chased spectators who invaded the pitch, forcing them to return to the stands."When we came back to the stands, police fired tear gas. We scrambled to get out to the exit. It was crowded, hot and suffocating," Dani, whose two relatives died in the melee, told Kompas TV.
Another spectator, Gilang, said chaos started after police used violence to stop pitch invaders.
"The police's action was excessive. Why did they have to fire tear gas at people in the stands who didn't do anything?" he said.
President Widodo called for a "thorough" investigation.
"I have also ordered PSSI [the Indonesian Football Association] to stop Liga 1 temporarily until an evaluation and improvements have been made," he added.
World football is "in a state of shock," the president of the world governing body FIFA, Gianni Infantino, has said.
"This is a dark day for all involved in football and a tragedy beyond comprehension. I extend my deepest condolences to the families and friends of the victims who lost their lives following this tragic incident," Infantino said in a FIFA statement.
The president of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, offered his condolences to the families of the victims.
"The thoughts and prayers of the Asian football family are with the football family of Indonesia during this very difficult moment," he said.
At the Vatican, Pope Francis said he was praying for those who lost their lives and those injured.
The PSSI said in a statement earlier that Arema would not host any more games for the rest of the season.
A team had been formed to investigate the incident, the PSSI said.
"We regret the action of Arema supporters at Kanjuruhan Stadium," PSSI chief Mochamad Iriawan said.
"We offer condolences and apologize to the victims' families and all parties for the incident," he said.
Afinta, the provincial police chief, said security personnel followed procedures when they fired tear gas after about 3,000 fans invaded the pitch.
"If the fans had followed the rules, this incident would not have happened," he said.
Security personnel are banned from using crowd-control gas and firearms at stadiums under FIFA stadium safety and security regulations.
Witnesses said fans were not attacking rival supporters. Rather, they were demonstrating their disappointment over the first loss to Persebaya at home since 1999 at the players and officials as they left the pitch.
Clashes among rival fans, sometimes fatal, are common in the football-mad country, where matches are regularly attended by tens of thousands of people.
Indonesia sets up team to probe deadly football stampede
Indonesia set up an independent team on Monday to investigate a weekend stampede at a football stadium that left 125 people dead, in one of the world's worst sports disasters.
The joint independent fact-finding team will consist of government officials, football association officials, experts, academics and journalists, said senior security minister Mohammad Mahfud.
"The team is expected to finish its work in two or three weeks," Mahfud said after a meeting of senior ministers and security officials to discuss the tragedy.
He said the government had also ordered the national police to investigate people deemed responsible for the incident "in the next few days" and evaluate security measures.
Among the dead were at least 17 children, said Nahar, a deputy at the Ministry for Women Empowerment and Child Protection.
"The number [of children killed] could rise, as we are still verifying the data," he told Kompas TV.
Witnesses told local television broadcasters that police chased spectators who invaded the pitch, forcing them to return to the stands. They also said police fired tear gas at the stands, causing fans to scramble to get out to the exit doors.
The use of tear gas raised questions about whether security personnel had followed proper procedures in dealing with a crowd inside a stadium.
Human rights activists called for a thorough investigation.
Police commanders and other officers must be held accountable for their decision to fire "significant and excessive amounts of tear gas, which apparently caused suffocation, and stampeded the crowd towards exits where many were trampled to death," said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
" FIFA's own rules bar use of 'crowd control gas' in stadiums by security officials on edge of the field, which was precisely where the Indonesian police were at the time of the incident," he said.
The FIFA U20 World Cup is set to be in Indonesia next year. Indonesia has also applied to host the 2023 Asian Cup.
Clashes among rival fans, sometimes fatal, are common in the football-mad country, where matches are regularly attended by tens of thousands of people.
In addition to a lack of international competitiveness, Indonesian football has also been beset by problems over the years, including clubs' failure to pay salaries of their domestic and foreign players, match-fixing and conflicts at the sport's governing body, PSSI.
At least 78 people have been killed since the 1990s in football-related violence involving rival fans, according to Save Our Soccer, an Indonesian football watchdog.
©2022 dpa GmbH.
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
