Unfortunate: 17 dead in stampede at Angolan football stadium

New Delhi : At least 17 football fans died in a stampede at a stadium in northern Angola, with scores of other spectators were injured, many of them seriously.

Panic spread through the crowd at the match in the town of Uige between Santa Rita de Cassia and Recreativo de Libolo in Angola’s domestic league season.

Hundreds of fans had tried to enter the already packed stadium to see the match, causing a crush that pushed some people to the ground.

Many of the dead were trampled to death or suffocated.

According to reports, many fans did not have tickets to the match, while other reports said that spectators inside the stadium were not aware of the stampede until it was over.

Angola, ranked 148 in the FIFA world rankings, is a minor power in African football.

Football has a tragic history of stampedes and stadium deaths, often blamed on lack of crowd control, dangerous venues and spectator behaviour.

In 2009, poor crowd control in Abidjan caused 19 deaths before a 2010 World Cup qualifier between hosts Ivory Coast and Malawi.

A stampede at the Accra Sports Stadium in Ghana in 2001 resulted in 127 deaths.