BFF-54 At least one dead, 37 injured in Madagascar stadium stampede

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MADAGASCAR-STADIUM-ACCIDENT LEAD

At least one dead, 37 injured in Madagascar stadium stampede

ANTANANARIVO, Sept 9, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – At least one person was killed and
37 injured in a stampede at a football stadium in Madagascar’s capital
Antananarivo, a hospital official said Sunday.

“In all, there are 41 patients that entered the hospital including one dead
on the spot and two in fairly precarious states,” Oliva Alison Rakoto,
director of the Hrja Hospital, told AFP.

“The two critically injured patients have head and thoracic trauma.” She
said some of the injured have already been discharged.

The stampede occurred at the entrance to the venue just before kickoff
between Madagascar and Senegal.

Witnesses said thousands of fans had been waiting outside Mahamasina
Stadium since early in the morning, well ahead of the 2:30 pm (1130 GMT)
kickoff.

At the hospital, 30-year-old Henintsoa Mialy Harizafy told AFP her uncle
had left home around 8:00 am to attend the 2019 Cup of Nations qualifying
match. “We heard he was hospitalised here after being trampled in the
stampede.”

She added: “I don’t understand why only one entrance gate was open for such
a big match.”

Another fan, Rivo Raberisaona, said his group had joined the queue at 6:00
am. “We were a metre and a half (five feet) from the entrance when the
stampede happened. I was trampled in the back, but my rucksack softened the
blow.”

Despite the crush, the match began on time with 20,000 spectators
attending.

– Match on TV in waiting room –

Families in the waiting room of the Hjra hospital watched the game on
television and could be heard bursting with joy when the Malagasy national
team scored a goal and was able to equalise.

The history of African football is marked by frequent deadly crowd
stampedes.

In July 2017, eight people were killed when rival supporters clashed during
Senegal’s League Cup final, and a stampede caused a wall to fall on escaping
fans.

In February 2017, 17 people were killed and 58 injured in Angola near the
northern town of Uige ahead of a season-opening match for the national
championship.

The scramble came after police used tear gas to clear the area surrounding
the stadium.

In 2009, 19 people died in the Ivorian economic capital Abidjan after a
crush in a qualifying match for the 2010 World Cup between Ivory Coast and
Malawi.

Europe has seen even deadlier stadium disasters. In 1985, a wall collapsed
at Heysel Stadium in Brussels before the European Cup final between Juventus
and Liverpool, killing 39 people. Four years later a crush at Hillsborough
Stadium in Sheffield, northern England, led to the deaths of 96 Liverpool
supporters before an FA Cup semi-final between the club and Nottingham
Forest.

Those two disasters led to widespread changes in stadium design in England
and across Europe.

BSS/AFP/ARS/1948 hrs