Riot police were called in to deal with crowd chaos at the World Cup 2022 fan zone ahead of the first game between Qatar and Ecuador. Fans claim they were crushed on route to Doha's FIFA fan festival prior to the opener of the tournament, reports the Mirror.
Thousands of fans descended upon the central Doha event, queuing up outside keen to see the match on the big screens at the FIFA fan festival. However, the joyous scenes for the opening game soon turned ugly, with fans pushing and shoving against police lines to try and enter a secure area.
Helmeted officers armed with batons and shields stood guard at the entrance. Pushing and shoving broke out as crushed fans pleaded to enter the zone. Hatem El-Berarri, who was working nearby, says a panic broke out from the crowd amid chaotic scenes.
He said: “It’s very risky .People could die. Old people, women, they cannot handle crowds like this.
"Thank God I’m a little bit tall, so I can breathe. But I saw some kids and said ‘get them up. They cannot breathe.’”
“My family is inside. I cannot enter to see them anymore. I don’t know what to do. (the organisation) is “not very good.”
Luis Reyes was amongst the crowd and likened the crush to scenes a few weeks ago in South Korea where 150 died. He said “You can’t go back and you can’t go forward - I told my son, ’Let’s go outside. It’s too dangerous.”
The crush occurred at the main gate of the FIFA Fan Festival at Doha's Corniche and it currently unclear if anyone was injured or arrested from the incident. It occurred the day after similar scenes at a pre-World Cup concert as people tried to push their way inside the same six-mile long zone.
A spokesman for Qatar's World Cup Supreme Committee said: "The main gate was temporarily closed because it reached capacity quite early on. It has now reopened. I am not aware of any injuries and it has since reopened."
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