129 dead after fans stampede to exit Indonesian soccer match, killing at least 48.
— A stampede of fans attempting to flee Sunday night’s soccer match between the Indonesian national soccer team and a rival team killed at least 48 people, the majority of them young children, according to Indonesian officials, and injured more than 100 others, according to local media.
Indonesian authorities said the dead ranged in age from 3 to 48 years old.
Police and search and rescue officials found 48 corpses near the scene and took over the area early Monday, according to local media.
Police arrested 56 people on suspicion of involvement in the stampede and took them to a police station in Makassar, the regional capital of Sulawesi, police spokesman Agus Suyanto told reporters.
Many of the dead and injured were children, he said.
The violence began shortly before the game, which was to end with a final match, with a large group of fans attempting to flee to the home of another team, police said. Several people were injured, two of them seriously.
An investigation was launched and on Monday, police announced that it suspected the deaths were caused by a stampede, which they said had been caused by an “excessive and violent crowd at the exits of the venue.”
Indonesian soccer federation president Haris Silalahi said in a statement that the federation and local police are working with the Indonesian ministry of sports to fully investigate the incident.
The match between the national team and the club side turned violent at the end of halftime when the home fans refused to leave and “began fighting with the other fans,” the federation said in a statement.
“There were fans from both the rival team and the national team that came together to confront them and they started to clash, in a way reminiscent of the rioting that had occurred last week in the country in the wake of the (sacking of