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Tearful victory Twelve dead in stampede as S. Africa tops Zimbabwe
Posted: Monday July 10, 2000 10:25 AM
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) -- Twelve people died in a stampede Sunday as the crowd tried to escape tear gas police had fired at unruly fans during a World Cup qualifier between Zimbabwe and South Africa. "We have 12 bodies" as a result of the soccer stampede, a police officer at Harare's main hospital said. Davison Sadza, head of the Parirenyatwa hospital, told state radio the 12 were dead on arrival. Four stampede victims were in critical condition, he said, and "many" were injured Anxious relatives waiting for news milled around outside Parirenyapwa hospital's emergency ward, where numerous injured patients were being treated. A doctor said most of the fatal victims had died from internal injures consistent with being crushed. Though the game was abandoned 10 minutes before full time, South Africa's 2-0 win will remain official. Fans began running amok after South Africa's Delron Buckley scored his second goal in the 84th minute. Angry fans disputed a referee's decision not to award a penalty to the home side, something they thought had set up Buckley's second attack. His first goal came in the 6th minute. Fans hurled bottles and other items onto the field and jumped from the tiered grandstands to jeer the visiting South Africans.
Police responded by firing tear gas, triggering a stampede as the crowd of about 50,000 tried to leave the National Sports Stadium in western Harare. A fire hydrant was torn from its mountings, spraying water over fleeing fans. Players writhed on the turf, choking and covering their faces as tear gas spread through the stadium. There were no immediate reports of injuries or arrests. Officials at the ground were outraged by the police action, which they described as "total overreaction," the South African Press Association reported. Zimbabwe had needed to win to avoid relegation from the Africa Zone Group E qualifying series. South Africa had been favorites to win the qualifier, but Zimbabwe fans had pinned their hopes to the fat that South Africa had never beaten Zimbabwe in previous competitive encounters. Zimbabwe beat South Africa 4-1 in their first World Cup qualifier in 1992. Zimbabwe won two and drew one of the countries' last three battles. But South Africa made it to the first round of the 1998 World Cup finals, and placed third in this year's African Nations Cup. Zimbabwe has never qualified for the World Cup and did not qualify for this year's African Nations Cup. The game was one of eight World Cup qualifiers, all in Africa, on Sunday. In other other games it was: Cameroon 3, Angola 0; Liberia 2, Nigeria 1; Ghana 5, Sierra Leone 0; Senegal 0, Egypt 0; Republic of Congo 2, Congo 0; Guinea 3, Burkina Faso 2; and Morocco 2, Algeria 1. In April, rioting soccer fans in Kenya forced officials to abandon a World Cup qualifier between Kenya and Malawi. Fans ripped out stadium seats and littered the field with debris. The 0-0 tie was declared the official score.
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