No command was given to fire8217;

HARARE, JULY 10: Rioting at African soccer games is nothing new, especially when the home team is playing badly.So I was not surprised whe...

HARARE, JULY 10: Rioting at African soccer games is nothing new, especially when the home team is playing badly.

So I was not surprised when bottles rained down on the Zimbabwean bench after arch-rivals South Africa took a 2-0 lead in their World Cup qualifying game in Harare.

But it was the start of violence which left at least 12 fans dead in a stampede.

Spectators threw glass bottles, big and small. They lobbed plastic containers still full of soft drink.

One bottle hit South Africa8217;s Delron Buckley and the team doctor as the goal scorer was being treated for a hurt ankle after his second goal.

At that moment, a policeman on the running track surrounding the pitch, just five metres yards from where I was sitting, fired a teargas canister up into the crowd.

No command was given to fire, but other police quickly followed their lone colleague8217;s lead. Some spectators said police had been angered by opposition salutes and taunts from the crowd.

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Chaos erupted in the stands as fans turned on their heels and fled to the narrow exits at the top of the stadium.

One spectator turned to pick up a teargas canister, hurling it back onto the pitch.

I tried to grab my equipment but the gas blew right over me and the others sitting nearby. We jumped over the advertising boards and onto the pitch.

The referee abandoned the game as police kept firing more and more teargas canisters.

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People were running in all directions. Some carried small children. The players lay down on the ground, their faces pressed into the turf to avoid the gas.

I took shelter in the dugout where the coach and substitutes normally sit. A troop of teenaged drum majorettes who had performed at half time, were crying and coughing amid the teargas.

Players and officials sprinted to the dressing rooms, with the Zimbabweans under a rain of bottles from angry fans.

Police were still firing cans of tear gas as the stadium holding 35,000 fans virtually emptied in about four minutes.

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Amid the chaos the hospitality tents kept serving drinks, but we were forced from the dugout by the drifting teargas and made our way out through the VIP Stand.

It was only afterwards that we heard of the tragic deaths of at least 12 fans and the injuries to scores more in their own desperate attempt to escape from the stadium. Reuters