About 125 people have been confirmed dead following a crush which occurred at an Indonesian football match yesterday.
Africa Today News, New York reports that the crush occurred after police tear-gassed fans who invaded the pitch.
Supporters of Arema FC and rival Persebaya Surabaya who are perhaps two of Indonesia’s most prominent soccer teams had clashed in the stands after home team Arema FC was defeated 3-2 at a match in the city of Malang in East Java, police said.
As panic took a new dimension, thousands marched towards Kanjuruhan stadium’s exits, where many suffocated.
FIFA, the world’s governing football body, states that no ‘crowd control gas’ should be carried or used by stewards or police at matches.
The organisation’s president, Gianni Infantino said it was ‘a dark day for all involved in football and a tragedy beyond comprehension’.
In another report No fewer than seven people have been reported dead and five others injured after a landslide at an illegal gold mine in Indonesia buried an estimated 20 people, officials have confirmed.
The victims were mining gold on a bare hillside when the landslide triggered by heavy rain struck the area on the west of Borneo island, in West Kalimantan province.
Local police said they had managed to identify four of the recovered bodies and the search for other victims continues with help from local people and the victims’ families.
Unlicensed mines are shared across the mineral-rich Southeast Asian archipelago where abandoned sites attract locals who scrounge for leftover gold ore without using proper safety equipment.
Mining accidents occur frequently in Indonesia due to landslides, especially during monsoons.
Last Sunday, rescue workers searched through the rubble of a Shiite Muslim shrine in central Iraq, following a landslide that left at least five people dead including a child.
‘Almost 48 hours of digging through collapsed rocks, wood, and other debris, we have found five bodies,’ civil defence General Abdelrahman Jawdat told reporters.
‘That could be the final toll,’ he further added while digging has also continued to search for other victims.
It is the latest tragedy to befall oil-rich but poverty-stricken Iraq, which is trying to move past decades of war but is hobbled by political paralysis, endemic corruption and other challenges.