{"id":5395,"date":"2023-05-21T22:32:05","date_gmt":"2023-05-21T17:32:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/?p=5395"},"modified":"2023-05-21T22:46:42","modified_gmt":"2023-05-21T17:46:42","slug":"el-salvador-soccer-stadium-stampede-kills-12-police","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/news\/el-salvador-soccer-stadium-stampede-kills-12-police\/","title":{"rendered":"El Salvador soccer stadium stampede kills 12: police"},"content":{"rendered":"

San Salvador, May 21: Twelve people were killed and hundreds injured Saturday in a stampede at an El Salvador soccer stadium, police and emergency services said.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Authorities said initial reports pointed to a crush of fans who tried to enter Cuscatlan Stadium in the Central American country’s capital San Salvador to watch a local tournament match between teams Alianza and FAS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The match was suspended as emergency personnel evacuated people from the stadium, where hundreds of police officers and soldiers gathered as ambulance sirens wailed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Salvadoran soccer is in mourning,” National Civil Police (PNC) director Mauricio Arriaza told reporters as he confirmed the death toll of 12.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the stampede survivors, Sandra Guzman, 40, left a capital hospital early Sunday with a bandage on her left knee, walking with difficulty alongside her friend, Javier Ramirez, 31.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both said this was the “first and last time” they would experience such a misfortune because they would not return to the stadium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“A large crowd of people fell on me. I couldn’t even breathe, they were choking me,” Guzman told AFP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When she was in front of a stadium gate, she said “people were pushing me to get in, they didn’t give me a chance to go back. When I came to see, I panicked, I had a lot of people on top of me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I fainted, and when I woke up I was in the hospital.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Health Minister Francisco Alabi said earlier that the country’s hospital network was “providing medical care to all patients.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carlos Fuentes, spokesman for the emergency services group Comandos de Salvamento, said they were treating more than 500 people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About 100 people in serious condition were taken to hospital, with some showing signs of asphyxia and other types of trauma, Fuentes said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The stampede apparently started after a stadium gate fell, causing people to crowd together, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At least two of the injured were in critical condition, according to police.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele said the PNC and the Attorney General’s Office would investigate the incident and those responsible would be punished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Everyone will be investigated: teams, managers, stadium, box office, league, federation,” Bukele said on Twitter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He warned that “whoever the culprits are, they will not go unpunished.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arriaza of the PNC said the investigation would determine responsibility “either by action or omission of some of those in charge.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Police also aim to learn “why the fans made the decision to break through one of the gates on the south side” of the stadium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the same area, there were issues with the ticket office’s QR readers, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Salvadoran Football Federation (Fesfut) said in a statement it “deeply regrets” the events that occurred at the stadium and “expresses its solidarity” with the families of those “affected and killed.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Fesfut will immediately request a report of what happened and will communicate the relevant information as soon as possible,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Due to the incident, the federation said “all soccer is suspended at the national level” on Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The tragedy comes seven months after 135 people, including more than 40 children, were killed in a stampede following a football match in Malang, Indonesia.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

San Salvador, May 21: Twelve people were killed and hundreds injured Saturday in a stampede at an El Salvador soccer stadium, police and emergency services said. Authorities said initial reports pointed to a crush of fans who tried to enter Cuscatlan Stadium in the Central American country’s capital San Salvador to watch a local tournament […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":5396,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,53,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-sports","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5395"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}