Conflicting death toll have been reported after stampede and clashes on Sunday, between police and supporters of Egypt’s Zamalek football club at a game in Cairo, the capital city of Egypt.
While some sources said at least 22 persons were killed, other sources said 40 were killed, with dozens injured.
The reason for the discrepancy in numbers between the health ministry and the public prosecutor’s office was not immediately clear.
Most of the dead were suffocated when the crowd scampered for safety after police used tear gas to clear the fans trying to force their way into a league match between two Cairo clubs, Zamalek and Enppi, medics and witnesses said.
Soccer matches are often a flash-point for violence in Egypt where 72 fans were killed at a match in Port Said in February 2012. Since then, Egypt has curbed the number of people allowed to attend and supporters have often tried to storm stadiums they are banned from entering.
Outside the Cairo hospital, where injured persons were being treated, dozens of youths wearing Zamalek T-shirts seemed shocked as families arrived to see if their relatives were safe.
A mother cried and shouted when she found the name of her son on a list of the dead posted by hospital staff lamenting that she had told him to leave soccer matches.
Relations between security forces and fan groups known as Ultras have been tense since the 2011 popular uprising, when football supporters played a key role in ending the rule of autocrat Hosni Mubarak
“Huge numbers of Zamalek club fans came to Air Defense Stadium to attend the match … and tried to storm the stadium gates by force, which prompted the troops to prevent them from continuing the assault,” the interior ministry said.
Egypt’s public prosecutor ordered that an investigation begin immediately, while the incident prompted the government to postpone the Egyptian Premier League indefinitely, the prime minister’s office said in a statement, adding that he also ordered the arrest of the leaders of the Zamalek supporters group, Ultras White Knights, after Sunday’s incident.
On their Facebook page, the Ultras White Knights described the incident as “martyrs” and accused security forces of a “massacre”.
Despite the violence, the match went ahead and ended with a 1-1 draw.
The Egyptian Football Federation said it had reversed an earlier decision to allow fans to return to the stadiums by the start of the second half of the season. The original decision had been taken only a few days ago.
Shortly after that, the Cabinet said in a statement that the national league championship would be postponed indefinitely.
