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MALANG: Fatalities among children following a football stadium stampede in Indonesia at the weekend have climbed to 32, from an earlier count of 17, a government official said on Monday (Oct 3).
The ages of the children range from three to 17, Nahar, an official at the women’s empowerment and child protection ministry told Reuters.
Indonesia has set up an independent team to investigate a crowd crush at a football stadium that killed 125 people, authorities said on Monday as the country’s human rights commission questioned the police use of tear gas.
Panic-stricken spectators stampeded as they tried to escape the overpacked stadium in Malang, East Java, on Saturday after police fired tear gas to disperse fans from the losing home side who ran onto the pitch at the end of the BRI Liga 1 match in the domestic league.
“My family and I didn’t think it would turn out like this,” said Endah Wahyuni, the elder sister of two boys, Ahmad Cahyo, 15, and Muhammad Farel, 14, who died after being caught in the melee.
“They loved soccer, but never watched Arema live at Kanjuruhan stadium, this was their first time,” she added at her brothers’ funeral on Sunday, referring to the home side they backed.
A senior minister said on Monday that Indonesia will give 50 million rupiah (US$3,268) in compensation to the families of the victims.
President Joko Widodo’s office intends to give out the funds within one or two days.
FIFA, the governing body for world football, says in its safety regulations that firearms or “crowd control gas” should not be used at matches.
“If there hadn’t been any tear gas maybe there wouldn’t have been chaos,” Choirul Anam, a commissioner at Indonesia’s National Commission on Human Rights, known as Komnas Ham, told a briefing at the stadium.
Police and sport officials have been sent to Malang to investigate what is one of the world’s deadliest stadium disasters. President Joko Widodo ordered the football association to suspend all Liga 1 matches until the investigation is completed.
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