Panic during football match kills at least 56 in Guinea

(UPDATE) CONAKRY, Guinea — Chaos erupted at a football match in Guinea after fans protested a referee’s call and thousands of panicked spectators tried to flee the stadium, killing at least 56 people in the country. West Africa, officials and witnesses said Monday (Tuesday in Manila).

Amid the confusion, security forces used tear gas, local news site Media Guinea reported. Many of the dead were crushed as they tried to escape through stadium gates, a reporter covering the game for a local sports website told The Associated Press.

“The doors, that’s where the stampede happened,” explained Cissé Lancine, who managed to escape by scaling one of the stadium walls. “I was saved because I didn’t rush towards the exit.”

In this capture taken from video provided by Nimba Sports Zaly, a man holds a chair over his head during a stampede during a soccer match at the Stade de Nzérékoré, in Nzérékoré, Guinea, on December 1, 2024. NIMBA SPORTS ZALY BY AP

The world’s latest sports crowd disaster occurred Sunday in the second-largest city of a military-ruled country, where information is scarce and government-controlled at best. It was not immediately clear to what extent the death toll could rise.

Lancine said between 20,000 and 30,000 people were present at the Stade du 3 April to see local teams from Labé and Nzérékoré face off in the final of the first national tournament honoring military leader Mamadi Doumbouya.

Checkpoints were set up Monday throughout Nzérékoré, a town of about 200,000 residents that was paralyzed as soldiers guarded the hospital where victims were being treated. Most stores were closed.

A video, apparently taken from the scene, showed fans shouting in protest against the refereeing. People ran to try to escape the stadium, many of them jumping the high fence.

“The supporters threw stones. This is why the security services used tear gas,” reported Média Guinée, which also wrote that several of the dead were children and that some of the injured were in critical condition.

The footage showed people lying on the floor of a hospital as members of the crowd helped the injured.

Enock Loua, a resident of Nzérékoré, learned by telephone that his niece Aline Olivier had been killed.

“We have a hard time realizing what happened to us, it’s like the sky is falling,” Loua told the Associated Press.

Authorities are trying to establish who is responsible, Prime Minister Amadou Oury Bah said on national television.

The opposition coalition National Alliance for Alternation and Democracy said the tournament was organized to generate support for Doumbouya’s “illegal and inappropriate” political ambitions.

Doumbouya, who toppled President Alpha Condé in 2021, is considering a possible run in the presidential election, the date of which has not been set. The transition charter put in place by his own regime does not allow him to run.

Guinea is one of several West African countries – including Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso – where the military has seized power and delayed a return to civilian rule.

Doumbouya said he was trying to prevent the country from descending into chaos and chastised the previous government for broken promises. However, it was criticized for failing to live up to the expectations it had raised.

The Guinean leader announced Tuesday a three-day national mourning starting Tuesday, in a presidential decree read on national television.