Cairo (AsiaNews) - The Egyptian government halted "indefinitely" the country's Premiere Football championship after at least 22 supporters died during clashes with police last night at a Cairo stadium.
People were crushed in a stampede after police fired tear gas at Zamalek supporters trying to force their way in for a match against city rivals ENPPI. Despite the violence, the match went ahead ending in a 1-1 draw.
State media reported that only 5,000 tickets had been made available for sale to the public for Sunday evening's match between Zamalek and ENPPI at the 30,000-capacity Air Defence Stadium. However, thousands of ticketless Zamalek fans reportedly tried to gain entry anyway.
The Interior Ministry said people "attempted to storm the stadium gates by force, which prompted police to prevent them from continuing the assault," setting off the deadly stampede. As a result, "some choked and died from asphyxiation, while the rest died from being trampled," a police official told the state-run newspaper, al-Ahram.
However, Zamalek supporters' group, the White Knights, said the stampede began when police fired tear gas at a crowd being forced to pass through a fenced-in passageway about 3.7m (12ft) wide. "Suddenly the security forces began firing tear gas and birdshot all over the place," one said.
President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi has expressed "great sorrow" over the deaths and promised an investigation.
The Egyptian Premier League had been last suspended in February 2012 after 74 fans were killed in a riot at a match in Port Said. On that occasion, many accused police of deliberatively failing to intervene to stop the riots.
The league resumed the following year, but supporters were banned from attending matches until last December.