Nine dead, 100 injured in stampede at San Salvador football stadium

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - At least nine people died and some 100 were injured in a stampede at a football stadium in El Salvador, German news agency (dpa) quoted the local newspaper La Prensa Gráfica report on Saturday.

The newspaper said the deceased were all adults and included seven men and two women.

The injured were taken to hospitals near the Cuscatlán stadium in the capital San Salvador, with at least two in danger of losing their lives, the Central American country’s police announced on Twitter on Saturday.

The match between FC Alianza and CD FAS was cancelled, as rescue workers scrambled to save lives.

The newspaper said that fans complained the stadium was already overcrowded with many people waiting to get in.

"There were only two gates open in the whole stadium," one fan said.

"The people outside wanted to force their way in, they all fell on us," the fan told the newspaper.

Another fan Sandra Argueta said children and elderly people were affected and the gate had to be kicked down to get some air because there were a lot of people and we were suffocating.

The newspaper described the panicked crowd on the sidelines of the first division match as a 'human avalanche'. - BERNAMA - dpa