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Recent news from the Indonesian football stadium stampede suggests that at least 125 people died during the incident, making it one of the deadliest stadium disasters in the world. The Football Association of Indonesia said that it has launched an investigation into the situation to find the exact reason behind the incident. The agency also added that this is the worst stadium incident that has happened in the country and has forever tarnished the face of Indonesian football. Chief Security Minister Mahfud MD stated that the Kanjuruhan stadium has a capacity of 38,000 people but the management had sold over 42,000 tickets for the match. President Widodo has paused the Liga 1 games in the country until the completion of the investigation.
The stampede happened at the Kanjuruhan stadium where a match between Arema FC and Persebaya Surabaya took place. Both the teams have been rivals of each other and have serious fanbases. When Arema FC, the home team lost the match to Persebaya Surabaya, the dedicated fans of both teams engaged in a heated argument in the stadium. The argument soon converted into physical fights, as fans of both teams took the fight to the stadium. To calm the situation, the police started firing tear gas rounds at the public, which turned the fighting fans against the police. The eyewitnesses said that the fans of Arema FC were enraged after the loss and started arguing with the fans of other teams. Some fans started rushing towards the stadium to confront the players of Persebaya Surabaya but were stopped by the police forcefully. Many said that the police beat these fans harshly, which caused the others to physically protest against the police. As a result, the police used continuous rounds of tear gas, increasing the heat of the situation even more. To further control the situation, the police came forward with barricades, dogs, and more manpower. As the police took serious measures to fight the angry fans, many people started to look for an exit out of the stadium. Police fired more rounds of tear gas continuously toward people in the stands. The shots were aimed at all the stands where people were sitting, thus further increasing the urgency of exit. Due to the tear gas and constant rush towards the exit, many people were suffocating and many were panicked, further increasing the dangers of the stampede. This so far has resulted in 128 deaths and over 200 injured people.
Since the news regarding the incident broke out, there have been multiple videos related to the incident published over the internet. These videos show people running from the teargas clouds as the police are using barricades to stop the crowd from attacking. Nico Afinta, the police chief in East Java, reported that the situation had turned anarchic, as the public stood against the police who were doing their jobs of maintaining peace. He added that during these anarchic events, two of the police officers also died. Afinta said that there were over 3,000 people who were involved in anarchic actions against the players and the police. Another officer stated that when the public tried to flee through the exit, hoards of people caused blockage at exits. This caused people to get out of breath and suffocate. Having tear gas only intensified the suffocation, leading to many deaths.
Yash Ranjan10/04/2022
