Cairo soccer stadium collapses: 48 dead

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33463, 19 February 1974, Page 13

Cairo soccer stadium collapses: 48 dead

(N.Z.P. A.-Reuter—Copyright) CAIRO, February 18. Forty-eight soccer fans were killed—impaled on spikes, mutilated and crushed —when a soccer match in Cairo turned to tragedy as part of a packed stadium collapsed. An estimated 80.000 fans had fought their way into the Zamalek Btadium — which normally holds about 30,000 — yesterday when a concrete wall and iron fence crashed to the ground.

The crowd had already spilled on to the pitch and a wild stampede took place.

Officials said that 47 other fans were injured, three seriously.

It was the worst tragedy m the historv of Egyptian soccer.

The stand collapsed 15 minutes before the kick-off between the local Zamalek Snorting Club and the Czechoslovakian team Dukla. The match was cancelled. One injured survivor. Mr Mohamed Abdallah. described how he tried to escape by jumping clear.

"An iron rail pierced mv belly and I fainted,” he said. Another survivor, Mr Gamal Helmy el-Sayed. said that he heard an explosion. “It was the collapsing wall. 1 fell to the ground and fainted.” Officials said that a preliminary investigation revealed that the iron railing separating the spectators’ stand from the field and part of the concrete wall had been I demolished bv the crowds. Eye-witnesses said that [fans had clambered on to the walls and pressed against the ! r ailings when they failed to find seats. Some fans were buried under the collapsing wall, and others were Trampled in the stampede, ofIficials said.

A number of the dead were badlv mutilated, they said.

Yesterday’s match was to have been only the second in Egypt since the October war against Israel. It was one of a series organised with Dukla of Prague to finance charity for war veterans sponsored by Mrs Gihan Sadat, wife of Egypt’s President.

Dukla, who played their ■ first match at Cairo’s Nasser !stadium before RO.OOO spectators last Friday, issued a statement regretting the incident.

But they hoped the match against Zamalek would be nlaved later. A deo’itv nremier and Minister of the Interior (Mr Salem), rushed to the scene vpctor<iay to supervise rescue work.

He ordered immediate payments of about SNZ3OO for families of the victims. Officials decided last night that any further matches against Dukla would be played at Cairo’s Nasser Stadium. capable of holding 100,000 spectators, and that all matches would be broadcast live on radio and television to alleviate pressure on the stadium.