Advertisement
ExplainerHow do crowd disasters like Indonesia’s football tragedy happen and can they be prevented?
- Fight-or-flight response triggered by radical change in environment, crowd density among key factors for disasters, experts say
- Assessment of potential risks, increasing education on how disasters occur part of multi-agency approach to prevention, analysts add
3-MIN READ3-MIN
1
The deaths of at least 125 people in Indonesia on October 1 was one of the world’s deadliest sporting stadium disasters in recent history.
For many, the tragedy was a stark reminder of the 1989 incident at Britain’s Hillsborough Stadium, in which an influx of people caused a severe crush that left 97 football fans dead.
More recently, a crowd crush during rap star Travis Scott’s Astroworld music concert in the United States killed at least eight people and injured dozens.
Advertisement
The disasters are not always linked to high-energy sports events or music festivals – in 2015, at least 2,411 Muslim pilgrims died in a crush during the annual Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia and in 2008, 168 people were killed when thousands of Hindu pilgrims were caught in a panic at a temple in Jodhpur, India.
But what causes these major crowd disasters to happen? And how can they be prevented?
A slow build-up
Advertisement
Select Voice
Select Speed
1.00x