Five killed in Syrian soccer riot
Five people were killed and more than a hundred injured when spectators stampeded during a riot in a football stadium in northern Syria.
The official Syrian news agency SANA said clashes broke out between supporters of the Al-Jihad and Al-Fatwa teams shortly before their Syrian championship match began yesterday in a stadium in Qameshli, a city 448 miles north-east of Damascus.
The “regrettable incidents” resulted in number of casualties, SANA said. It did not elaborate.
The director of a private hospital in Qameshli, Ahmed Khilo, said his hospital had received four fatalities from the stadium and 10 injured people – eight of whom had been discharged after treatment for minor wounds.
At the state National Hospital, an official said the hospital had received one dead spectator and had treated and discharged more than 100 others.
“There are only two people being operated on – one in a critical condition,” the official said.
Ibrahim Hussein, a lawyer who witnessed the incident, said the clashes began when Al-Fatwa supporters began throwing stones at Al-Jihad players and fans in the grandstand before the game.
“When Al-Jihad fans tried to flee the grandstands, the spectators stampeded,” Hussein said.
“Some were hit by stones, fell to the ground and were crushed underfoot,” he said.
Hussein said there was a second incident when the people outside the stadium, apparently Al-Jihad fans, heard what was happening inside. They surrounded a group of Al-Fatwa supporters and began attacking them.
Police intervened, firing into the air to disperse the crowd, Hussein said.
Hussein said the dead and wounded were rushed to hospital by ambulances and private cars.
