Stampede at World Cup match claims 12

Police had fired tear gas into a crowd of fans who threw bottles and cans onto the pitch during the World Cup qualifier between Zimbabwe and South Africa.

Fans among the 35,000 crowd began throwing things after South Africa scored their second goal to make it 2-0 with eight minutes left. Witnesses said one South African player — Delron Buckley who scored both the goals — was hit on the head. The team doctor was also struck.

The game was halted as smoke filled the National Sports Stadium. Referee Falla Ndoye of Senegal then abandoned the match and the two teams rushed off the field as the tear gas wafted over the ground.

The dead included a nine-year-old boy whose head was crushed. A seven-year-old boy with a broken arm was among the injured, the officials said.

Ironically, companies continued to serve snacks and drinks at hospitality tents, unaware of the tragedy playing out just metres away.

Witnesses said police had been provoked by taunts by supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) at the tense match. “There were a number of people in the crowd around me who were giving the MDC salute and shouting slogans. The police may have been irritated by that,” said Eddie Katanga as he waited at the Parirenyatwa Hospital for word on three injured friends.

A football official who declined to be named said police appeared to try to prevent people from fleeing. “Police were deliberately targeting the exits where the people were trying to flee. Ambulances couldn’t get into the stadium perimeter,” the official said.

Another witness said MDC supporters shouted opposition slogans during the pre-match singing of the national anthem.

The MDC broke President Robert Mugabe’s 20-year-old stranglehold on power in voting two weeks ago, cutting his overwhelming majority in parliament to just 62 of 120 seats up for election.

Zimbabwe Football Association President Leo Mugabe, a nephew and business associate of the president, said soccer officials would meet on Monday to assess the tragedy.

“We express shock and also anxiety at the deaths and injuries sustained by innocent people at the stadium,” he said.

Injured people lay on benches, stretchers and on the floor, some moaning in pain as they waited for hospital staff to treat the most seriously hurt first.

Spectators spilled onto the pitch to escape the fumes and several were later stretchered from the stadium after being hit by flying objects.

Trouble continued outside the stadium with cars stoned and police chasing groups of youths.

Zimbabwean reporters said the incident was the worst in the country’s sports history.