What seemed like a normal soccer match suddenly turned into a horror, after a stampede claimed the lives of 125 people in one of the world’s most devastating sporting tragedies in history.
Indonesian authorities said on Monday that they have formed an independent fact-finding team to investigate Saturday’s deadly stampede that occurred after a football match in East Java province, a representative of the Indonesian government said.
This is what we know so far
– Dozens of Indonesian police were placed under investigation on Monday over a stampede at a soccer match that killed over 120 people.
A team was assigned directly by President Joko Widodo to find out the causes of the stampede, which had killed 125 people and injured at least 320 others.
– This team will work for a maximum of one month. All results and recommendations will be directly reported to the president, Xinhua reported on Monday.
– Arema FC supporters at the Kanjuruhan stadium stormed the pitch after their team lost 3-2 to the visiting team and bitter rivals, Persebaya Surabaya.
– According to police, who described the unrest as “riots“, they tried to force fans to return to the stands and fired tear gas after two officers were killed, AFP reports.
– One witness told the BBC that police had fired numerous tear gas rounds “continuously and fast” after the situation with fans became “tense”.
– President Widodo has ordered that all matches in Indonesia’s top league be postponed until an investigation has been carried out.
