<blockquote><Center>Forty-three die in soccer stampede</center> April 11, 2001 Web posted at: 5:28 PM EDT (2128 GMT) JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- At least 43 people have been killed at a football match between South Africa's two biggest teams. The stampede began as a crowd tried to get into Ellis Park stadium in Johannesburg to watch the match between Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates. President Thabo Mbeki's office promised an urgent inquiry into the tragedy to ensure it was not repeated. "The president expresses his sincere condolences to the bereaved on behalf of South Africa," his spokeswoman Tasneem Carrim said. Eyewitness Michael Mcmullan said the stampede began when soccer fans rushed into the stadium. "The rush started 10 minutes before the beginning of the game and continued into the first half. People kept coming into the north east corner of the stadium. All of a sudden you could tell it got bad, people started overflowing into the crowd on either side," he told CNN. "The people at the front were just yelling for them to go back but it wasn't registering and suddenly it bottled up Mcmullan said officials later opened the fence onto the pitch to relieve some of the pressure. "Then they started hauling bodies out of the aisles. They were just bringing lifeless bodies onto the pitch and lined them up behind the goal posts," he said. South African Minister of Sport Ngconde Balfour told CNN that medics and police were in the stadium and ferrying the injured to hospital. "We're stunned, we're shocked and we're sending our condolences to those families. Whatever will need to be done we'll do," he said, adding that he would be speaking to the country's football authorities on Thursday. "This type of thing should not have happened." A live broadcast by South African Broadcasting Corporation from the stadium showed bodies scattered inside and outside the stadium. Emergency vehicles outside the stadium were unable to move amid the soccer traffic. Police had earlier fired tear gas at people stampeding outside the stadium. The Premier Soccer League derby was stopped after 17 minutes. </blockquote> What a tragedy. And for such a STUPID thing, too. <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/africa/04/11/safrica.stampede.03/index.html?s=2">Here's the story on CNN</a> ------------------ "Up and down, inside out, outside in, some you lose some you win" -- DMB -> "Sweet Up and Down"
****! man! That is just sad. so sad ------------------ Everything you do, effects everything that is.
That is why assigned seating is very important. I think I heard about the same thing happening in the '70s in America at a rock concert. I belive is was somewhere in Ohio. After that they banned festival seating. It really just isn't worth your life to get good seats at an event. ------------------ "Of course, thats just my opinion, I could be wrong" -- Dennis Miller
