12 killed in Zimbabwe soccer stampede

11:00 AM

HARARE - At least 12 people were killed and many more injured when spectators stampeded out of the National Stadium on Sunday.

The stampede occurred after local soccer fans at the World Cup qualifying match between Zimbabwe and South Africa hurled bottles at the players and police responded with teargas.

Soccer players and officials gasped for air after the fans picked up the teargas canisters and hurled them onto the field at the 60,000-seat stadium.

The trouble started when German-based Bafana Bafana midfielder Delron Buckley scored his second goal of the match in the 82nd minute.

Furious Zimbabwe fans then hurled an assortment of missiles at the field, hitting Buckley behind the ear.

The Zimbabwean supporters were upset as the loss of the game effectively spelled the end of their country's World Cup hopes. They had already lost 3-0 to Guinea and the defeat to Bafana almost certainly put them out of the running.

As thrown debris rained onto the field, police fired teargas into the grandstands. The game was abandoned as fans trampled one another, breaking seating as they tried to flee the stadium.

Bafana captain Shaun Bartlett and left-back Bradley Carnell, both asthmatics, vomited and struggled for breath in the putrid air.

Attempts to lessen their discomfort by pouring cold water on their faces to alleviate their burning eyes only exacerbated their agony.

The Egyptian match commissioner then announced that the match had been abandoned. He said soccer's international ruling body, Fifa, would decide what action to take after it had received a report on the incident. But, he said, the 2-0 result stood.

Outside the stadium there was more mayhem with traffic congestion and the stoning of cars.

An AFP journalist who toured Harare's main hospital last night was shown eight bodies by medical staff, and was told that at least four others has also died. A senior sister at the Avenues Clinic, another central hospital, said she could not give any figures for the injured because she had "lost count."

Police were not immediately available to confirm the casualty figures.

South African Football Association chief executive officer Raymond Hack said shortly after the match was abandoned that the players and their technical team were safe and were on their way to the airport.

"I am waiting for the report from the head of the delegation as to what happened. I will only comment fully after reading the report. But for now everyone is fine and we are happy about the results," Hack said.

Former English Premier League star John Fashanu said trigger-happy police had caused the match to be abandoned.

"I blame the police for this disaster. Some bottles were flung onto the pitch, but there was no need for such a heavy-handed reaction," the former Wimbledon striker said.

Fashanu said enemies of African football would pounce on the incident as a justification for not taking the 2006 World Cup finals to South Africa.

"Once again South Africa will take the blame for something that happened beyond its borders.

"I have been to South Africa many times and this incident would not have happened there," he added.

- CAPE TIMES