CCRA, Ghana (AP) — Thomas Akazara went to the soccer game hoping his team would win, but after a stampede unleashed Africa’s worst sports tragedy ever he prayed to live
Police over-reaction is being blamed for what is thought to be the worst tragedy in African sporting history – the deaths of at least 126 fans at a football match in the Ghanaian capital.
ACCRA, Ghana — Up to 125 people have been killed and hundreds more injured in a stampede at a football stadium in Ghana, hospital officials have said.
May 10, 2001 — A day after a soccer stampede left more than 100 dead in Ghana, police overreaction was being blamed for one of the worst soccer tragedies in African history.
Police in Ghana have been blamed for a football stadium disaster in May in which 126 people were killed and dozens injured.
In a league game that saw home side Hearts of Oak winning 2-1 against their arch rivals Asante Kotoko, police fired tear gas into the stands to curb a crowd disturbance believed to have been started by aggrieved away fans. The toxic gas inevitably led to a rush to exit the stadium, provoking an ensuing stampede which proved fatal, claiming as many as 127 lives. It is on record to be the worst football related tragedy in African history.
Never again! That has been the refrain. Never Again! Never again should we allow football to bring us such sorrow, pain and loss like it did on May 9, 2001, when 127 lives were senselessly forced to their graves after a Hearts-Kotoko league match at the Accra Sports Stadium.
The Prosecution in the case in which six police officers involved in the May Nine Stadium Disaster on Thursday closed its case.
There were almost as many deaths at Accra Sports Stadium in Ghana on May 9, 2001, as there were in the Hillsborough and Heysel stadium disasters combined.
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