The Southeast Asian Games in Jakarta, Indonesia ended in tragedy this week with the deaths of two fans. Police say the pair was trampled to death in a stampede. Another 8 people were injured.
According to officials, Gelora Bung Karno Stadium was packed with more than 90,000 people Monday night for the final match between Indonesia and Malaysia’s football teams when the stampede was sparked at an entry gate. The gate was briefly opened and fans outside tried to scramble in even though the stadium was over capacity.
"It's very difficult to control the number of people coming to the stadium, there were people without tickets. There were maybe half as many people waiting outside (about 45,000) as there were in the stadium,” said a chairperson for Inasoc, the organizer of the event.
Authorities are investigating the incident. "In our evaluation, we have to look at why so many tickets were sold. The stadium was over-capacity," said Jakarta police spokesman Baharudin Djafar. "It's likely that the organizers double-sold tickets, or that there were fake tickets made."
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