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'Several' dead Iran stadium roof caves in, injuring hundreds
Updated: Monday May 07, 2001 12:16 AM
SARI, Iran (AP) -- Several soccer fans were killed and hundreds others injured Sunday when part of the roof of a stadium grandstand caved in during a game in northeastern Iran, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported. After the accident, angry fans clashed with police trying to make their way into Mottaqi Stadium, said Ali Ansarian, a player with Persepolis, one of the teams in the match. He told The Associated Press by phone that fans had started fires on the field. State-run Tehran television showed fans wielding metal poles locked in battle with anti-riot forces trying to control the crowds at the stadium in the city of Sari, 250 kilometers (155 miles) northeast of Tehran. About 20,000 people were at the game at the time of the collapse, about double the capacity of the stadium. A few hours later, Ansarian, reached again on his cellular telephone, said the riots have been contained and that he and his fellow players were on a bus headed for Tehran. Team manager Mahmoud Khordbin, on the bus with Ansarian, said one of the players had been badly injured when a rock hit him on the head. A doctor at one of the hospitals where the injured had been rushed said that security forces had opened fire with live ammunition on the crowds, and that several people with bullet wounds had been brought in. But he said that hospital officials had been ordered not to let the wounded speak to journalists. "We have received people with bullet wounds. But we have been ordered not to speak to journalists about this, or to allow the wounded to speak with anyone," said Ahmad Ali Barzegar, the senior doctor on duty at the Bu Ali hospital in Sari. He said 82 of the injured had been admitted to the hospital. Another doctor at the Imam Khomeini hospital said that 105 wounded had been brought to that hospital. He refused to give his name or any other details, saying he too had been ordered by security officials not to speak with journalists. Both doctors said they had not seen any dead, probably because they had been taken elsewhere by security forces. Several hours after the incident, the city was calm. Earlier, the local television station quoted officials and witnesses as saying that several people had been wounded by gunfire. Tehran TV showed one wall of the stadium had been completely torn down. Iron fences separating the grandstand from the field had been rooted out. The field was packed with fans and police forces. "The security forces are trying to direct the people out of the stadium," the report said. The riot appeared to have been triggered by panic and by police trying to beat their way into the stadium, according to witnesses and hospital officials. "We are trapped in the locker room," Ansarian said earlier when reached by the AP. "There is such a thick crowd outside that we can't force open the door to the locker room. Through a small window, I can see fighting outside between fans and the police," he added. Ansarian said he had seen at least 30 people dead. IRNA said "hundreds" of fans had been injured and "several" killed. It did not give an exact number of casualties. Officials and witnesses at the stadium, too panic-stricken to give their names, also confirmed that several people had been killed. One of the officials, reached by telephone at the scene, said that the stadium was old and so overcrowded that aid workers could not quickly reach some of the injured. Tehran television, which was showing the game live, suddenly cut off transmission after the accident. Persepolis was playing another local team, Shemooshak of Nowshahr, when the accident happened during the second half.
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