Football fans die in stadium stampede

Woman in trouble at Cuscatlán stadium Photo: Getty

At least 12 people died in a stampede at a sports stadium in El Salvador where football fans gathered to watch a local tournament.

Carlos Fuentes, a spokesman for the Rescue Commandos first aid team, told media that "more than 100" people were taken to the hospital. Several people are known to be in critical condition.

The tragedy occurred on Saturday evening when Alianza FC and Club Deportivo FAS played the quarter-final match at the Cuscatlan stadium in the capital of San Salvador.

«The El Salvador Football Federation deeply regrets the events that took place at the Cuscatlán Stadium.» the organization wrote on Twitter. «He also expresses solidarity with the relatives of those injured and killed in this incident.»

Police said initial reports indicated a stampede of fans trying to enter the stadium during the match.

“It was an avalanche of fans that swept the gates. Some were still under the metal in the tunnel. Others managed to get to the stands and then to the pitch and were strangled.” This was reported to journalists by an unknown volunteer from the rescue team, according to the Australian agency Associated Press.

Fans enter the field of the Cuscatlan Stadium Photo: Getty

El Salvadoran Interior Minister Juan Carlos Bidegain said that the place In the event, civil protection officers arrived and treated the people injured in the incident.

The match was suspended as emergency personnel evacuated people from the stadium, where hundreds of police officers were stationed. and soldiers gathered to the sound of ambulance sirens.

the country's network «provided medical care to all patients»; after a stampede.

The tragedy comes seven months after 135 people, including more than 40 children, died in a stampede after a football match in Malang, Indonesia.