It was the closing stages of the match, a soccer derby in Indonesia’s East Java province, and 29-year-old spectator Ahmad Nizar Habibi said he had a gut feeling things were about to turn ugly.
“I wanted to leave, but suddenly I heard explosions,” he said, describing rounds of tear gas fired as Saturday’s night-time match ended and fans invaded the field, angered by the home team’s loss.
“We couldn’t see. Fans were screaming and we couldn’t breathe,” said Habibi.
The chaos that erupted in the soccer-mad Southeast Asian nation resulted in 125 dead and more than 400 injured, plunging a sleepy town on the main island of Java into shock and mourning. The victims were mostly fans of the local Arema FC team in Malang.
Comments from spectators, police and experts who spoke to Reuters as well as video footage indicate the disaster was caused by a confluence of factors – a crowd beyond the capacity of the stadium, angry fans, the firing of tear gas by police and, tragically, some locked exits.
The use of tear gas, a crowd-control measure prohibited by world soccer governing body FIFA, has come under scrutiny and police have said the decision to do so was one of the issues being investigated.
Yusuf Kurniawan, a respected commentator on football in Indonesia, said while the tear gas was fired to disperse fans who had invaded the pitch, it floated up to the stands.
“People panicked and they were suffocated as they struggled to find the exits,” he said.
Some spectators said at least three exits at Kanjuruhan Stadium were locked on Saturday night, leading to a crush and stampede. Most of the deaths were near the stadium’s Gate 13, one of those locked, some people said.
Albertus Wahyu, a commissioner with the national police commission watchdog, said on Tuesday that some exits were locked but it was unclear who had locked them and why.
A director from PT Liga Indonesia, the domestic soccer league, said he was unable to respond to queries given an investigation was ongoing. A spokesperson from Arema FC was not immediately available for comment.
Spokespeople for the national and East Java police declined to answer questions on the security measures but on Monday, 10 officers were suspended pending an investigation.
“We heard the doors were closed, or some doors, and that many people couldn’t get out so I decided to wait. I couldn’t breathe and my eyes hurt,” said Haura, a 20-year-old university student who said she fainted in the stands. Like many Indonesians, Haura uses only name.
Medics said people caught in the crush mostly died from suffocation and head injuries, while officials have confirmed that 33 minors were among the dead.
“We were wrong,” said Habibi, of the angry Arema fans who streamed onto the pitch and threw rocks, and later set police cars alight outside the stadium, “But what the police did was also wrong.”
Some spectators claimed police fired tear gas directly into the stands, while footage shows officers kicking and beating fans with batons.—Reuters
