Probe begins into soccer stadium collapse
Iranian soccer officials began an investigation today into the collapse of a roof at an overcrowded stadium that left at least one fan dead and hundreds injured.
The roof of the Mottaqi Stadium grandstand in Sari, 155 miles northeast of Tehran, collapsed during a soccer match yesterday afternoon that attracted twice as many spectators the stadium could accommodate, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.
After the accident, angry fans clashed with police trying to make their way into the stadium.
State-run television showed images of fans wielding metal poles battling anti-riot police on the field. One wall of the stadium was torn down, and iron fences separating the grandstand from the field had been rooted out.
Although witness accounts have reported several people killed, IRNA today said there was only one death.
IRNA said of the 284 injured, 107 were still receiving hospital treatment, some in critical condition.
The man who died was 42-year-old Ali Akbar Faraji. About 25 of his family members gathered outside the Amir Mazandarani Hospital Centre in Sari, wailing in mourning. Faraji died of suffocation, according to his father.
A team of investigators from the Islamic Republic of Iran Soccer Federation, led by the federation’s secretary Ali Akbar Erfanian Daneshvar, arrived in Sari, said Mohammad Fanai, a leading soccer referee and a member of the team.
He would not comment on the investigation.
President Mohammad Khatami today ordered the team to look into the causes of the accident.
The stadium has the capacity of 10,000 people, but as many as 20,000 were watching the match when the roof caved in, IRNA said.
The fibreglass roof overhang was destroyed after it collapsed under the weight of hundreds of cheering and dancing fans during the second halftime of the match between Persepolis and Shemooshak of Nowshahr.
This is the second time in five months that the popular Persepolis team has played a game that ended in rioting.
In December, fighting between Persepolis players and another team ended in riots during a game in Tehran. After the game, hooligans among the more than 100,000 fans destroyed about 250 public buses along the three mile route from the stadium to the capital.
Persepolis changed its name after the 1979 Iranian revolution to Pirouzi, but recently changed it back to Persepolis.
’’If the police had prevented people from going on the roof, there wouldn’t have been such a calamity,’’ said Mohammad Zamanian, 21, a spectator at yesterday’s game who returned to inspect the damage.
Officials and spectators said that the stadium was old and so overcrowded that medical workers could not quickly reach some of the injured.
Tehran television, which was showing the game live at the time the roof collapsed, suddenly cut off transmission after the accident.
