Tragedy in El Salvador: a stampede leaves 12 dead and 100 injured at the Cuscatlán stadium

The incident occurred when fans tried to enter one of the popular areas of the stadium to watch a match.

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Twelve people have died and another 100 have been seriously injured this Saturday after a stampede in the Cuscatln Stadium from the capital of The Savior when there was a match between alliance and the FAS Sports Club in the second leg of the quarterfinals of the Clausura 2023 Tournament.

Witnesses to the tragedy have told local media that there was excess capacity in the stadium, which would have caused the stampede. The Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, has already announced on its social networks an “exhaustive investigation” of the events by the National Civil Police and the Attorney General of the Republic. “Everyone will be investigated: teams, managers, stadium, ticket office, league, federation, etc. Whoever is guilty, they will not go unpunished,” warned the president.

The Secretariat of the Presidency of El Salvador has reported that in addition to the health service teams, teams from the Armed forces to support emergency care. Thus, there have been moments of chaos due to the confrontation between the bars of the Alianza and Deportivo FAS teams on the outskirts of the Cuscatln stadium, which has initially prevented ambulances and police from advancing to care for the victims of the stampede. . Subsequently, they have been able to transfer a hundred wounded to several nearby hospitals and at least two people are in critical condition.

The match between two of the most popular teams in Central America he had to be suspended in the 21st minute when the score was tied 0-0 so that the relief teams could do their job. For his part, the Minister of Health of El Salvador, Francisco Alabireported at first that they were treating some 90 injured people: “The patients, both female and male, including minors, have mostly been treated for multiple traumas,” he revealed on his Twitter account, where He stressed that “most of them are stable and at the moment we do not report intra-hospital deaths.”

Meanwhile, the Presidency revealed that the authorities’ first lines of investigation point to “the sale of electronic ticketing and the restriction of access to the Cuscatlán stadium, especially the southern zone.” In this sense, the Attorney General of El Salvador, Rodolfo Delgadoexplained that “the investigations include the actions of Estadios Deportivos de El Salvador (EDESSA) and the leaders of the clubs involved.”

For his part, Carlos Fuentes, a spokesman for the Rescue Commands, explained that the stampede occurred “apparently when one of the Sol General gates fell and that caused people to crowd together and start a brawl, which caused respiratory problems due to the heat in the area.” one of the tunnels. Thus, local media have published images of various bodies of people who died in one of the stadium tunnels.

FAKE ENTRIES ON THE BLACK MARKET

The Minister of the Interior, Juan Carlos Bideganhas considered “reprehensible” that the people in charge of these scenarios do not have strict control “after learning the preliminary information that revealed that fans had shown that they were sold false tickets allowing them to enter, after overselling on the black market. As it happened He recalled that Bukele has ordered an investigation so that “nothing goes unpunished.”

Along these lines, the director of the National Civil Police, Mauricio Arriaza, has stated that, as a police institution, together with the Prosecutor’s Office “we are going to get to the last details of a criminal investigation of the incident.” Arriaza revealed that “preliminarily, we have found that there was an oversaturation of electronic sales” and noted that “the authorities were recommended to open the other access to the south, but they did not want to and these are part of the investigations.”

Precisely, the director of Civil Protection of El Salvador, louis alonso He remarked that “one of the triggers for this event is that many people were allowed to enter because not only had it been overbooked, but people with inappropriate tickets wanted to enter. In the end, that is what has caused this situation”. As he pointed out, the relief forces have treated more than 500 people and have treated everything from nervous breakdowns to people who are torn between life and death, although 100 wounded have finally been transferred to medical centers.

For her part, the Salvadoran Football Federation (Fesfut) has “deeply” regretted the events, while expressing solidarity with the families of the people affected and killed in this incident. Likewise, she has advanced that she immediately request a report on what happened and communicate what is pertinent in the “shortest term.” Likewise, it has reported that, after the death of 12 people in the Cuscatln stadium, all soccer at the national level is suspended, so that the return matches of the quarterfinals of the first division between Águila and Jocoro and 11 Deportivo against Isidro Metapn will not be held this Sunday. Likewise, the respective days will also be held in the second and third division, nor the women’s league of the major league and the duels in the reserve category.