129 dead after fans stampede to exit Indonesian soccer match
Rescue workers at the scene of a stampede during an Indonesian Soccer League (ISL) match on Wednesday in Jakarta. The fans of the matches were unable to leave due to safety concerns.
Iriyanto, AP
In this photo taken on Wednesday, June 4, 2014, fans of Indonesian Soccer League (ISL) teams, including the Persians, who had to be escorted out of the stadium by emergency services after fans stampede during their soccer match, walk to the hotel they were staying at after the match at the MNC Group Stadium in Jakarta.
Jakarta (Reuters) – The dead were too many to count, and the wounded many more, when scores of passionate soccer fans raced toward a police barricade and barricade themselves behind thousands of police as an out-of-control stampede tore through the world’s largest Southeast Asian soccer tournament on Wednesday.
Police said the fans were running on the field after a match between Persilya Jakarta and Persib Bandung in the annual Jakarta Cup final, when the gates were opened and the contest was going to be staged.
But the fans surged down the stairs to the pitch and began to stampede toward them as they tried to get into the stadium, and police attempted to hold them back.
About 15,000 police, fire fighters and ambulances surrounded the stadium after the match ended, while thousands of fans and spectators ran to safety in a mass panic. Hundreds of them were also injured, some broken limbs or other wounds from the melee, as police tried to direct them to safety.
The game, the second leg of an Indonesian Premier League (IPL) doubleheader, was halted for the day and is unlikely to be played again.
It was the largest and most dramatic of many match cancellations after fans protested against low ticket prices and crowd size that has marred the IPL season.
The IPL officials have promised a new ticket-buying system that could
