Accra Sports Stadium disaster

The Accra Sports Stadium disaster occurred at the Accra Sports Stadium, Accra, Ghana on May 9, 2001. It took the lives of 127 people, making it the worst stadium disaster to have ever taken place in Africa. It occurred during a match between Ghana's two most successful football teams, Accra Hearts of Oak Sporting Club and Asante Kotoko. The home side scored two late goals to defeat Kotoko 2-1 which led to disappointed Kotoko fans throwing plastic seats and bottles onto the pitch. The response to this crowd disturbance from the police was to fire tear gas into the crowd. Panic ensued and a resulting stampede led to the deaths from compressive asphyxia of 127 people.

Reports claim that medical staff had already left the stadium, as the incident happened near the end of the match. Some gates were locked, preventing escape. Six police officers were charged with 127 counts of manslaughter afterwards.As a result of that, on May 9, 2011 each year, Ghanaian football lovers remember what happened on that day. Constant policies are put in place to prevent such a hideous event to happen in the history of Ghana football again.

External links and references

• BBC report
• Crowd Dynamics report
• Ghanaweb report on prosecution case