At least four other people were killed and dozens wounded in a stampede at a stadium in Basra in southern Iraq ahead of the Arab Gulf Cup final, according to Iraqi soccer officials.
Briefing Basra, Al Jazeera’s Mahmoud Abdelwahed said several of the other 80 injured people were “in critical condition” after Thursday’s incident.
The adjustment took position on Thursday night and Iraq beat Oman 3-2, winning the eight-nation tournament.
Thousands of ticketless enthusiasts had piled up outdoors at Basra’s foreign stadium since dawn hoping to watch the rare foreign home game.
A photographer for Agence France-Press said the turnstiles were still closed when the stampede broke out. Sirens sounded as ambulances arrived to take the injured to hospital.
Abdelwahed said other people without tickets tried to enter the stadium, according to stadium security sources.
Images posted on social media showed a sea of other people outside the stadium.
– Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) January 19, 2023
Football fan Moumen Adnan told Al Jazeera how he was injured outside the stadium.
“I didn’t expect such chaos to happen,” he said. Because of the stampede, I fell and hurt my hand. I couldn’t enter the stadium, but because of the stampede, I entered through the door of the journalists.
In a statement, Iraq’s Interior Ministry suggested other people who did not have tickets to the final leave the area around the stadium. He said the stadium was full and all doors had been locked.
“The number of enthusiasts is very large and we don’t need cases of suffocation,” he said in a statement.
Al Jazeera’s Abdelwahed said that, according to the Iraqi Football Federation, around 90 tickets had already been sold before the start of the match, adding that it had disappointed many Iraqi football fans, some of whom crossed several provinces to watch the match.
To “appease the anger” of rejected enthusiasts near the stadium, the government installed giant screens in fan zones in the city’s main squares “to give them the opportunity to watch the game outside,” Abdelwahed said.
Iraq was already forced to go to its neighbor Kuwait after a fight in the VIP segment prevented its representative from attending the opening ceremony.
The tournament began on January 6 with the presence of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Yemen and Iraq.
This is the first time since 1979 that Iraq has hosted the tournament. Decades of sanctions imposed on Iraq have prevented the country from hosting sporting events.
Abdelwahed said tens of thousands of others had arrived from abroad, putting “more pressure on the city’s already weak infrastructure. “
“The government says it’s fortunate to host such a special event, but the city is not as prepared as it deserves,” he said. “Basra has suffered several disorders in recent decades, such as lack of services, security gaps and conflicts, even recently. “
Abdelwahed said the central government in Baghdad had no progress plan for the southern city “even though Basra is a city, 70 percent of Iraq’s oil [comes from Basra], still suffers and is partly marginalized. “
Additional information via Ismael Adnan in Basra, Iraq.