12 dead in football stadium stampede in El Salvador

SAN SALVADOR - Twelve people were killed and hundreds injured on Saturday in a stampede at an El Salvador football stadium, the police and emergency services said.

The authorities said initial reports pointed to a crush of fans who tried to enter Cuscatlan Stadium in the Central American country’s capital, San Salvador, to watch a local tournament match between teams Alianza and FAS.

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

“Salvadoran soccer is in mourning,” National Civil Police (PNC) director Mauricio Arriaza told reporters as he confirmed the death toll of 12.

Among the stampede survivors, Ms Sandra Guzman, 40, left a hospital early on Sunday with a bandage on her left knee, walking with difficulty alongside her friend, Mr Javier Ramirez, 31.

Both said this was the “first and last time” they would experience such a misfortune because they would not return to the stadium.

“A large crowd of people fell on me. I couldn’t even breathe, they were choking me,” Ms Guzman told AFP.

When she was in front of a stadium gate, “people were pushing me to get in, they didn’t give me a chance to go back”, she said.

“When I came to see, I panicked, I had a lot of people on top of me,” she added.

“I fainted and when I woke up, I was in the hospital.”

Health Minister Francisco Alabi said earlier that the country’s hospital network was “providing medical care to all patients”.

Mr Carlos Fuentes, a spokesman for emergency services group Comandos de Salvamento, said it was treating more than 500 people.

The stampede apparently started after a stadium gate fell, causing people to crowd together, he said.

The venue is one of the largest stadiums in Central America and has an official capacity of more than 44,000.

At least two of the injured were in critical condition, according to the police.

El Salvador President Nayib Bukele said the PNC and the Attorney-General’s Office would investigate the incident and those responsible would be punished.

“Everyone will be investigated: teams, managers, stadium, box office, league, federation,” he said on Twitter.

He warned that “whoever the culprits are, they will not go unpunished”.

Mr Arriaza of the PNC said the authorities were investigating a possible cause: The large number of people attending the game may have caused the stadium’s Wi-Fi to malfunction.

This, in turn, could have led to a problem with scanning QR codes on tickets.

That ticketing problem, he said, may have led to hundreds of people being stuck at the southern gate of the stadium, trying to get in.

Some fans had also forced their way into the stadium through the southern gate, where those who buy cheaper tickets typically enter.

He added that they would also investigate ticket sales for the game. Local news organisations have raised questions about whether too many tickets had been sold for the match.

The Salvadoran Football Federation (Fesfut) said in a statement it “deeply regrets” the events that occurred at the stadium and “expresses its solidarity” with the families of those “affected and killed”.

“Fesfut will immediately request a report of what happened and will communicate the relevant information as soon as possible,” it said.

Due to the incident, the federation said “all soccer is suspended at the national level” on Sunday.

Football governing body Fifa’s president Gianni Infantino offered his condolences on Sunday.

He said: “I extend my deepest condolences to the families and friends of the victims who lost their lives after the tragic incident that has taken place in El Salvador.”

The tragedy comes seven months after 135 people, including more than 40 children, were killed in a stampede following a football match in Malang, Indonesia.
AFP, NYTIMES