GUATEMALA: FOOTBALL/SOCCER: AT LEAST 79 FANS ARE KILLED AND MORE THAN 150 INJURED IN OVERCROWDED STADIUM

Record ID: 912416

  • Title: GUATEMALA: FOOTBALL/SOCCER: AT LEAST 79 FANS ARE KILLED AND MORE THAN 150 INJURED IN OVERCROWDED STADIUM
  • Date: 16th October 1996
  • Summary: GUATEMALA CITY, GUATEMALA (OCTOBER 16, 1996) (REUTERS) UNIDENTIFIED EYEWITNESS SAYING SOMEONE HAD TO GET ON THE LOUDSPEAKER AND ASK PEOPLE TO GET BACK BECAUSE THEY WERE SUFFOCATING THE INJURED. IT WAS AWFUL. PEOPLE WERE STEPPING ALL OVER EACH OTHER. WOMEN AND CHILDREN. THERE WERE ABOUT 80 DEAD (SPANISH)
  • Embargoed: 6th July 2005 17:39
  • Keywords:
  • Location: GUATEMALA CITY, GUATEMALA
  • Country: Guatemala
  • Topics: Disasters,Sport
  • Reuters ID: LVAD0MVN44GLMC2YOFAEHIZNN8GA
  • Aspect Ratio: 4:3
  • Story Text: An avalanche of soccer fans tumbled down stadium seats and a flight of stairs at a World Cup soccer qualifying game in Guatemala City on Wednesday (Octber 16), killing at least 79 people and leaving more than 150 injured.

    Some of the people suffocated in the crush of bodies at the stadium, which officials said was packed far beyond capacity before the match between Guatemala and Costa Rica.

    A Reuters correspondent counted 79 dead at the stadium including two children. Local radio reported more than 80 dead and 150 injured.

    "I am deeply pained and you all must be as well," a teary-eyed President Alvaro Arzu told fans from the middle of the playing field after he arrived shortly after the tragedy.

    Arzu immediately suspended the game and declared a three-day period of national mourning.

    Both Arzu and Costa Rica President Jose Maria Figueres were scheduled to attend the game, but neither was in the stadium at the time of the incident.

    Witnesses said gate-crashers pushing into the bleachers at the south end overwhelmed fans below, causing a mass of people to tumble down on top of each other toward the playing field.

    The entrance to the stadium is at street level and the playing field is dug out below.

    Many victims screamed in pain as rescue workers attended more than 100 fans, many blue and purple from apparent lack of oxygen, after the crush occurred in the south end of Mateo Flores stadium.

    Some fans tried to perform mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on victims, helping about 15 overwhelmed firefighters. Crowds of people stood overhead, waving jackets to provide air.

    Soccer's governing body FIFA suggested on Thursday forged tickets may have prompted the stampede.

    Guatemalan officials said the stadium was packed well beyond its 45,800 capacity an hour before kickoff with some suggestions that up to 60,000 were in the ground.

    FIFA said a preliminary report submitted by their match commissioner Arnoldo Levinson of Mexico spoke of forged tickets being sold before the game.

    The report said angry fans kicked down an entrance door to the south stands causing spectators already inside to cascade down to the lower levels.

    It was the worst stadium disaster in World Cup history and one of the worst ever in soccer, recalling the 1989 tragedy at Hillsborough in the English city of Sheffield when 95 fans died in similar circumstances.
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