At least 40 Egyptian soccer fans were killed Sunday night, when security forces wouldn’t let them into a stadium, Reuters reported. A riot broke out outside a major soccer game between two Cairo teams, Zamalek and Enppi. Fans told Egyptian TV that the death toll was higher. Egypt’s health ministry said dozens of people were injured.
Security officials speaking on condition of anonymity told journalists that Zamalek fans tried to force their way into the stadium without tickets, which started the clashes with police.
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Police used teargas to disperse the crowd. Apparently, some fans were killed in the stampede that resulted from police teargas. Doctors told Reuters the deaths were the result of suffocation.
Egypt’s interior ministry said in a statement: “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.”
Egypt law limits the number of people allowed into soccer gamed since a 2012 riot at a Port Said stadium when more than 70 people were killed. But fans have been ignoring the law, and trying to storm soccer overcrowded stadiums.
