Bodies of the victims of Wednesday‘s stampede at soccer stadium in Ghana‘s capital Accra were lying in the morgue. PHOTO - REUTERS
ACCRA - Thousands of desperate relatives besieged a morgue in Ghana‘s capital last Thursday to search for victims of a soccer stampede that killed at least 126 people in Africa‘s worst football tragedy. Authorities promised an inquiry into the disaster, which spectators said was triggered by police firing teargas after fans hurled missiles at the end of Wednesday‘s game between Ghana‘s two leading teams, arch-rivals Hearts of Oak and Asante Kotoko.
It was the soccer-mad continent‘s third deadly stadium disaster in a month, raising questions over Africa‘s hopes of hosting the 2010 World Cup finals. Ghana‘s state news agency said 126 dead had been reported by officials at six hospitals in Accra. President John Kufuor summoned his cabinet for an emergency meeting and his aides said that a period of national mourning would be declared.
CRUSHED
AND SUFFOCATED
Kufuor, who was once Kotoko‘s club chairman, was clearly very shaken during a visit to the injured. An aide said the president had screamed when he first heard the news. Many of the dead were crushed in the stampede. Others suffocated. Witnesses said that with Hearts of Oak leading 2-1 after two quick goals near the end of the game, Asante Kotoko fans began throwing chunks of their plastic chairs onto the pitch. Police reacted by firing teargas, triggering a stampede for the exits in the packed stadium, which can hold 50,000 people. Wails of anguish echoed around the stadium as scores of bodies piled up from Africa‘s third football disaster in the last month and the worst in its history. On April 11, 43 soccer fans were crushed to death when fans tried to force their way into Johannesburg‘s huge Ellis Park stadium midway through a top South African league match. At least seven people were killed and 51 seriously injured in an April 30 stampede in the Democratic Republic of Congo after police moved to break up rioting at a match in Lubumbashi.
Africa, which hopes to host the 2010 World Cup despite concerns over stadium safety, has suffered repeated tragedy over the past decade as a result of soccer violence.
REUTERS
