At least 174 people have been killed and nearly 200 injured in an outbreak of violence after a soccer match on the Indonesian island of Java, when fans of the losing team jumped onto the pitch. The tragedy is already considered one of the deadliest in football history.
The events happened at the Kanjuruhan stadium in the city of Malang, in the province of East Java, in a match between the teams Arema and Persebaia Surabaya (2-3). The police used tear gas to disperse the riots. Most of the deaths occurred as a result of the fan stampede, when dozens suffocated.
The spiral of violence began when around 3,000 supporters of the losing team stormed the pitch and began attacking the players, leading to a fierce clash with security forces, who used tear gas in an attempt to stop the attacks. The use of these gases by the police has been criticized by some international organizations, such as Amnesty International, which has urged the Indonesian authorities to carry out a “swift, thorough and independent investigation into the use of tear gas in the stadium”. The organization has noted that “tear gas must never be fired in confined spaces” due to its high level of danger and has recalled that FIFA stadium security rules prohibit the transport or use of so-called “crowd control gas.” “Tear gas should only be used to disperse crowds when widespread violence has occurred and other methods have failed. People should be warned that tear gas will be used and allowed to disperse,” the executive director of Amnesty International Indonesia, Usman Hamid, insisted in a statement.
After the “appalling” incident, the country’s soccer league has suspended all matches for a week and an investigation has been launched to clarify the facts.
