Delays in unlocking gates contributed to Indonesia stadium stampede: soccer group
- All gates should be unlocked 10 minutes before the end of a match, but on Saturday, 7 minutes after the final whistle, several doors were still locked
- Police, however, continued to insist the gates were open but were too narrow and could only fit two people at a time when hundreds were trying to escape
Delays in unlocking the gates at an Indonesian soccer stadium after violence broke out at the end of a match contributed to a disaster in which at least 131 people died, the national soccer association said on Tuesday.
“The doors should have been open, but were closed,” said Erwin Tobing, chief of the association’s discipline commission.
Because of a lack of workers, only a few people were ordered to open the gates, and they had not yet reached some doors when spectators began rushing to escape tear gas fired by police in an attempt to control fans who had entered the field, association spokesperson Ahmad Riyadh said.
02:32
Survivors of Indonesia football stadium tragedy say tear gas was everywhere
He said all gates should be unlocked 10 minutes before the end of a match. But on Saturday, 7 minutes after the referee blew the final whistle, several doors were still locked, contributing to the toll in one of the world’s deadliest sporting disasters.