Six months after the tragedy of the stadium of Malang, in the island of Java in Indonesia, which had claimed the lives of 135 people, a new drama in a football stadium took place Saturday, this time in El Salvador. "Salvadoran football is in mourning," said Salvadoran police chief Mauricio Arriaza, as a stampede left twelve dead in a stadium in San Salvador. Nine people died in the Cuscatlan stadium, three others died in hospital and at least two others are in "critical condition", according to a provisional police report on Sunday.
The tragedy occurred when fans "tried to enter" the southern sector, before a first division match between the local team of Alianza and CD FAS, in the capital of El Salvador. When the stampede occurred in the Salvadoran stadium, the match was interrupted and hundreds of law enforcement officers and soldiers coordinated the evacuation of spectators.
đđžđ» Nuestro corazĂłn estĂĄ con El Salvador. pic.twitter.com/nDXxFdWHy8
â CĂĄdiz Club de FĂștbol (@Cadiz_CF) May 21, 2023
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"I had five people on me who were choking me"
According to a spokesman for the emergency services, more than 500 people had to be treated inside the 35,000-seat compound, one of the largest in Central America. The 100 most affected people were taken to health facilities for symptoms of asphyxiation and other types of "trauma". Players from both teams joined in rescue operations for the injured inside the stadium and on the pitch, as ambulances poured in amid the roar of sirens. "I am traumatized to have seen people on the ground, dead, injured, their faces covered in bruises because they had been trampled on," said Fredy Alexander Ruiz, a 28-year-old spectator who survived the stampede. I had five people on me choking me and thank God I was able to grab a policeman's foot and was dragged out of there, along with a friend. »
Sandra Guzman, 40, admitted to San Salvador's Rosales National Hospital, said: "I couldn't even breathe, they were choking me. People were pushing me to enter the stadium, they didn't give me the opportunity to back down. I had a seizure and I fainted, so many people were on me. I woke up in the hospital. The head of state, Nayib Bukele, announced that an investigation was opened. "All will be concerned: teams, management, State, ticketing, league, federation," he said on his Twitter account. Whoever is guilty will not go unpunished. Since Sunday, Salvadoran authorities have been investigating possible sales of counterfeit or excess notes, which could be at the origin of the deadly stampede.
The alert was given ten minutes after kick-off
Both the police and the emergency services indicate that they have received complaints about the excess sales of tickets or counterfeit tickets, as well as malfunctions of the "QR code readers of the ticket office". The sale of excess tickets on the black market is a common practice in the country, denounces the director of civil protection services Luis Alonso Amaya. Video footage posted on social media shows the crowd massing in front of one of the stadium gates. It was saturated and the door, giving access to the southern sector, the most popular, had been closed. The crowd broke down the gate, causing the deadly stampede.
The alert was given ten minutes after kick-off, and fans invaded the pitch to escape the stampede. Luis Alonso Amaya blames the organizers for having "not maintained strict control" of the event, while the supporters had a "very reprehensible" attitude. "Nothing justifies violence," said the director of civil protection services, acknowledging that spectators who had bought tickets had not been able to enter. The National Sports Institute has announced that it will prepare "a bill to harshly crack down on the sale of counterfeit tickets and regulate the resale of tickets" on the black market.
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