Local time on the evening of the 24th
The 2022 Africa Cup of Nations enters the knockout stage. Before the opening of the match between the hosts Cameroon and the Comoros Islands, a stampede at the entrance to the stadium killed at least eight people and injured dozens more. Local government officials said the number of casualties could continue to rise in the future.
Eight deaths are staggering
The stampede took place outside the Colombe Stadium in Cameroon's capital, Yaoundé. Judging from the video of the scene, the gate outside the stadium has gradually closed, leaving only a narrow passage, and a large number of fans are flocking in from outside the door, and the scene is quite chaotic. In the process, someone stumbles and falls, which immediately leads to more chaotic crowding and stampedes.
Witnesses revealed to the media that the game had begun and the stadium security was closing the gates, and more than a thousand fans who were still stranded outside the stadium were afraid that they would not be able to enter the stadium and tried to rush into the stadium before the gates were closed.
Agence France-Presse reported that a preliminary investigation by cameroon's Ministry of Public Health showed that the number of registered stampedes killed eight people, including two adult women and four adult men, both in their 30s, and a child, and "one body was taken away by the family".
There is a sigh behind the incident
One might ask, why do you close the stadium gates before the game starts? Why do fans rush to the door like crazy? All this may be blamed on the "excellent matching mechanism in the African region".
The Colombe Stadium is Cameroon's home stadium for the Africa Cup of Nations, and the final of this year's Africa Cup of Nations will also be staged here. The stadium can theoretically accommodate 60,000 spectators, but due to the covid-19 pandemic, the African Cup of Nations is only allowed to enter no more than 60% of the stadium's capacity. The franchise rose to 80 per cent as it was the first knockout match of the host Cameroon. But even that can't contain the enthusiasm of the fans. According to the estimates of relevant parties, there were more than 50,000 fans gathered outside the stadium at that time, and all of them were definitely in violation of the regulations.
Someone has to ask, you sell 80% of the tickets and then enter the market with the tickets? The answer is: "Based on the excellent matching mechanism in the African region, this will not work." "A lot of times the crowd doesn't need tickets to get in, for example, at the Africa Cup of Nations in Tunisia in 2004, there were strange images of only 2,000 people in the first half and 20,000 people in the second half.
After the accident, the staff at the scene reacted quickly. Cameroon's Ministry of Public Health said the victims were immediately taken to hospital by ambulance, but "severe road congestion slowed down the delivery process". At the nearest Mesari hospital, the paramedics said it was beyond their capacity to deal with: "Some of the injured are in desperate condition, and we must immediately take them to a specialized hospital." ”
Text/Hubei Daily reporter Guo Xiaoming
Photo/Weibo