Two people were killed and a young boy was fighting for his life in a coma after a terrifying stampede when thousands of fans jammed a Jakarta stadium for the Southeast Asian Games soccer final.
All 88,000 tickets at the cavernous Gelora Bung Karno Stadium had been snapped up for the keenly anticipated showdown on Monday night between the hosts and their rivals Malaysia, in which the visitors took gold 4-3 on penalties.
However, 5,000 police were unable to control the deadly crush of fans — many without tickets — storming through a small gate to get a live view of the match.
“The two victims died when the stadium doors at section 15 opened and everyone rushed in,” Jakarta City Police spokesman Baharudin Djafar said. “One of the bodies was identified and has been returned to his family, while the other is still at the morgue. Several others were taken to hospital with minor injuries, but one young boy slipped into a coma.”
Tens of thousands of eager supporters had gathered outside the sold-out match, some hoping to buy tickets from touts and others finding spots in front of large outdoor screens, a reporter at the scene said.
In the chaos, the bodies of the two men trampled to death — both wearing the Indonesia national team jersey — could not be immediately evacuated, police said.
Hundreds of people had been packed tight against the ticket barriers, while fans inside the stadium were forced to crouch in aisles and walkways, witnesses said.
One of the victims was 21-year-old Reno Alvino, identified by his cousin Helmi Gemael.
“As we were entering the stadium, the crowd of people pushed each other to make their way forward,” Gemael said.
He said that Alvino “was pushed away from me and we were separated. I then heard that some people had fallen and that people had died.”
He then “rushed to check” and found his cousin dead.
The bodies only reached paramedics two hours after the stampede, police said, and they lay in a parked ambulance for an hour before being taken to hospital.
“When we found the victims, they were already dead,” paramedic Abdul Majid told the Detik.com news portal.
The two-week Games ended yesterday with a colorful closing ceremony at a sister stadium in co-host city Palembang, with organized performances standing in stark contrast to the mayhem in Jakarta on Monday.
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