By MARCOS ALEMÁN (Associated Press)
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — Fans indignant at being blocked from getting into a Salvadoran soccer league match knocked down an entrance gate to the stadium, resulting in a crush that left a minimum of 12 folks lifeless and dozens injured, officers and witnesses stated Sunday.
The stampede passed off late Saturday throughout a quarterfinals match between golf equipment Alianza and Fas at Monumental Stadium in Cuscatlan in southern San Salvador, the nation’s capital.
“The game was scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m. but they closed the gate at 7 p.m. and left us outside (the stadium) with our tickets in our hands,” stated Alianza fan José Ángel Penado. “People got angry. We asked them to let us in, but no. So they knocked the gate down.”
Civil Protection director Luis Amaya stated about 500 folks had been attended to and about 100 have been taken to hospitals. At least two of the injured transported to hospitals have been in essential situation.
“El Salvador is in mourning,” stated an announcement from the press workplace of Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, which confirmed that a minimum of 12 folks had died.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino stated Sunday in a speech to a World Health Organization assembly in Geneva that “I simply would like to express, of course, my condolences to all the people of El Salvador for this tragic incident.”
Play was suspended about 16 minutes into the match, when followers within the stands waving frantically started getting the eye of these on the sphere and carrying the injured out of a tunnel and all the way down to the pitch.
Local tv transmitted dwell photographs of the aftermath of the stampede, which gave the impression to be by primarily Alianza followers. Dozens made it onto the sphere the place they acquired medical remedy. Fans who escaped the crush stood on the sphere furiously waving shirts making an attempt to evaluation folks mendacity on the grass barely shifting.
“It was a night of terror. I never thought something like this would happen to me,” stated Alianza fan Tomas Renderos as he left a hospital the place he had acquired medical consideration. “Fortunately I only have a few bruises… but not everyone had my luck.”
Pedro Hernández, president of El Salvador soccer’s first division, stated the preliminary info he had was that the stampede occurred as a result of followers pushed by means of a gate into the stadium.
“It was an avalanche of fans who overran the gate. Some were still under the metal in the tunnel. Others managed to make it to the stands and then to the field and were smothered,” an unidentified volunteer with the Rescue Commandos first support group advised journalists.
National Civil Police Commissioner Mauricio Arriza Chicas, on the scene of the tragedy, stated there can be a prison investigation at the side of the Attorney General’s Office.
“We are going to investigate from the ticket sales, the entries into the stadium, but especially the southern zone,” the place, he stated, the gate was pushed open.
The Salvadoran Soccer Federation stated in an announcement that it regretted what had occurred and voiced help for the victims’ households.
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