174 People Died After Police Used Tear Gas on Football Fans
At least 174 people died at an Indonesian football stadium when thousands of angry fans entered the pitch and police responded with tear gas.
At least 174 people died at an Indonesian football stadium when thousands of angry fans entered the pitch and police responded with tear gas that triggered a stampede in Indonesia. The tragedy took place on 1st of October in the city of Malang, in Indonesia during a football match held at the Kanjuruhan Stadium. Fan violence is a common problem in Indonesia, where deep rivalries have previously turned into deadly confrontations.The match was played between Football team Arema FC & Persebaya Surabaya. Football teams Arema FC and Persebaya Surabaya are longtime rivals. The stadium holds the capacity of 42,000 people and authorities said it was a houseful event when the incident took place. Police said nearly 3,000 fans of the Arema FC supporters entered onto the pitch after their team lost the match with the score of 3-2.
In order to control the crowd, the police at the stadium had to use tear gas causing rush and stampede which also left 323 people injured along with the death of more than 174 people according to police, and was one of the world's deadliest sporting stadium disasters.
Police, who described the event as "riots", said they tried to force fans to return to the stands and fired tear gas after their two officers were killed trying to control the angered fans. Many of the victims were choked to death. People present at the stadium said that the officers fired tear gas, and people were rushing to come out, pushing each other and it caused many deaths. According to some other people at the stadium, Nothing was happening and there was no riot. They don't know what the issue was but the police suddenly fired tear gas without even thinking about children and women present at the stadium. However, President Joko Widodo ordered an investigation into the tragedy.
