‘TRAGEDY BEYOND COMPREHENSION’

32 Children Among 125 Killed in Indonesia Soccer Stampede

The disaster began when police used tear gas to stop fans running onto the field.

Indonesian authorities are investigating a catastrophic crush at a soccer game which left 125 people dead, including 32 children, on Saturday. A stampede broke out at an over-crowded stadium in Malang, East Java, when police at the venue used tear gas to disperse fans of the losing home team from running onto the field. An official in Indonesia's women’s empowerment and child protection ministry on Monday confirmed that 32 of the dead were aged between three and 17, Reuters reports. FIFA—the organization which governs world soccer—stipulates in its safety rules that firearms and “crowd control gas” should never be used at games. An independent team has been set up to probe the disaster, which FIFA called a “dark day for all involved in football and a tragedy beyond comprehension.”