At least 131 people die in crowd crush at Bali stadium

At least 131 people died in a crowd crush after delays in unlocking stadium gates were in place after violence broke out at the end of a football match, Indonesia s national football association said.

The Football Association of Indonesia said it has permanently banned the chief executive and security coordinator of the host team for failing to secure the field or issue a command to unlock the gates.

It said that some gates were still locked when spectators began rushing to escape teargas fired by police in an attempt to control fans who had entered the field.

The Indonesian police, however, said the gates were open but were too narrow to accommodate all those who tried to escape.

The police are facing increasing pressure over their management of crowds during the Kanjuruhan stadium disaster.

The investigation focused on video recordings of surveillance cameras in six of the 14 gates where most of the victims died, according to the police. Dedi Prasetyo, a police spokeswoman, said the gates were unlocked but were only able to accommodate two people.

They were not closed for those six gates, but they were too small. They had a capacity for two people but there were hundreds coming out. Prasetyo told reporters there was a crush there. He said that the gates were the responsibility of the organisers.

Most of the deaths occurred when riot police fired teargas and triggered a crush of fans making a panicked, chaotic run for the exits. The police acted after some of the 42,000 Arema FC fans ran onto the pitch in anger after their team was defeated 3 -- 2, its first loss at home against visiting Persebaya Surabaya in 23 years.

On Monday, police announced that they had removed one police chief and nine elite officers and 18 others who were being investigated for involvement in the firing of teargas inside the stadium.

Some survivors said that they were unable to escape, due to the fact that some of the exit gates were locked and they were unable to escape. Most of them mentioned Gate 13 specifically.

Exits at stadiums must be unlocked for safety purposes, according to recommendations by Fifa and the Asian Football Confederation. The rules don't necessarily apply to domestic or national leagues, but they are a safety standard, as is the recommendation against the use of teargas as a crowd control measure.

After teargas was fired, people tried to save themselves. My group was separated from each other, said Prasetyo Pujiono, a 32-year-old farmer from Malang who watched the match with friends near Gate 13.

People could not stay inside the stadium. We wanted to escape, but the gate was closed. Most people died because they were suffocated or trampled, he said.

I remember that they were screaming that they couldn't breathe and their eyes hurt. The snoopers trying to escape broke through the wall next to Gate 13, leaving behind a big hole with the scrawled graffiti that read: Goodbye my brothers and sisters. Hundreds of Arema supporters and local residents have been paying tribute to the victims at Gates 13 and 12 since Monday. They prayed together, dropped rose petals, flower bouquets and placed several Arema scarves around the gates.

Pujiono said he moved more than 20 bodies that lay scattered around Gate 13. There were so many bodies scattered at Gate 13. We could not have gotten out if we had not moved them. He said that my friends and I carried them to the field.