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At Least Two Dead In Iran Stadium Collapse
WASHINGTON, May 7 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Two people are confirmed dead and 143 remain hospitalized Monday, a day after scaffolding collapsed at Mottaqi Stadium in Sari, Iran, during a football (soccer) match, hurling spectators to the ground, said Iranian hospital officials.
Although the exact number of dead is still unknown, a reporter for Iranian radio said that he counted at least five dead at the stadium. Another witness said he saw many bodies in the hospital corridor.
Many eyewitnesses, however, said a major catastrophe was only narrowly averted.
In addition, dozens of injured people were released from area hospitals, after getting treatment. Observers said the stadium overcrowding slowed the arrival of medical help. The scaffold, holding temporary seating, collapsed at 4:30 p.m.
A local football federation official who asked not to be named said that an angry mob tried to chase down government officials, blaming them for the tragedy, after the tragic collapse.
He said security forces escorted the officials to safety as the mob broke windows at the grounds and attacked press and VIP areas, but denied that anti-riot police had been called in to restore order.
The Islamic Republic of Iran's Soccer Federation sent a committee to Sari, the capital of Mazandaran province, 155 miles northeast of Tehran, to investigate the accident at Mottaqi Stadium. The committee was headed by federation secretary, Ali Akbar Erfanian Daneshvar.
More than 25,000 spectators were inside the stadium, which has a capacity of 15,000, to attend the soccer match between Tehran's Persepillus club and the local Sari club, Shamushak.
Pirouzi, a perennial league leader with an enthusiastic nationwide following, were losing 2-0 at half time to Shamushak in a do-or-die elimination cup match at the grounds.
"Every two or three years when there's a major match like this, the situation is the same," a local merchant who asked not to be named said. "They were lucky because this could have been a catastrophe."
There was no immediate confirmation of reports coming out of Sari after the stadium collapse Sunday, which said players had been trapped in the dressing rooms for at least an hour during the chaos.
The official IRNA news agency said as events were unfolding Sunday that one Pirouzi player was briefly in a coma after being pelted with a missile.
It originally reported that several people were dead in the accident but later said there had been no fatalities.
State television showed pictures of pandemonium as people scrambled to pull themselves from the wreckage, with spires of twisted metal jutting from the debris of the stand.
A Shamushak official told the student news agency ISNA the grounds were so overcrowded that his players had been unable to get into the dressing room at halftime, and had been forced to change their strip on the pitch.
Football is a wildly popular game in Iran, with Pirouzi and their Tehran rivals, Esteghlal, attracting followers across this nation of 62 million people.
Pirouzi supporters had violent clashes with Esteghlal fans following a bad-tempered derby in the capital last year, after which hundreds of coaches to transport spectators were reportedly burned.
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