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1988 Dasharath Stadium disaster

Crowd crush in Kathmandu, Nepal

Summary

Crowd crush in Kathmandu, Nepal

Field	Value
title	1988 Dasharath Stadium disaster
image	1988 Dasharath Stadium disaster.jpg
date	12 March 1988
place	Dasarath Rangasala Stadium
Kathmandu, Nepal
cause	Overcrowding
reported injuries	More than 100
reported death(s)	93

Kathmandu, Nepal | reported death(s) = 93 The Dasharath Stadium Disaster occurred on 12 March 1988 at the Dasharath Stadium in Kathmandu, Nepal during a football match between the Janakpur Cigarette Factory and Bangladeshi side Muktijoddha Sangsad KC for the 1988 Tribhuvan Challenge Shield. Ninety-three people were killed and more that 100 were injured in a stampede when spectators trying to flee from a hailstorm rushed to the locked doors of the stadium. The Dasharath Stadium disaster was the ninth biggest stadium disaster until 2006 and the worst stadium disaster in Nepal.

Build up

The Dasarath Rangasala Stadium is open terrace on three sides with the west side having the only grandstand. It hosts most of Nepal's domestic and international games, and the final of the Tribhuvan Challenge Shield 1988 was no exception. Thirty thousand spectators were present. News reports state that the weather on the day was not bad, with sunshine throughout. Mahesh Bista, the-then executive committee member of the All Nepal Football Association (ANFA), said they were initially looking to postpone the match but, "we decided to hold it as the rainy morning had changed into a sunny afternoon".

Disaster

There are often significant hailstorms in Nepal at this time of year. A large hail began to lash the crowd, causing some panic. The crowd surged towards the west stand cover but was beaten back by the police. The spectators then returned to the south terrace where a crush developed in a tunnel exit. The crowd could not escape, because the stadium doors were locked, causing a fatal crush at the front.

Aftermath

Despite the huge loss of life and hundreds of fans being injured, the government of Nepal at that time decided not to compensate the victims. The reason they gave was that the fans were at the stadium by their own choice, and the government played no part in causing the catastrophe.

After the disaster, the Minister for Education and Culture, Keshar Bahadur Bista, and president of the All-Nepal Football Association, Kamal Thapa, resigned. The stadium was later renovated for the 1999 South Asian Games with the help of the Chinese government.

References

(13 March 1988). "93 Die in Nepal Stadium Stampede : Soccer Fans Rush to Locked Exits in Sudden Hailstorm". Los Angeles Times.
"Dasharath Stadium marks 25th year of disaster".
"Life’s Most Expensive Football Ticket".
"Football stadium disasters".
(12 March 2018). "1988 Dasharath Stadium Disaster - Black Day Of Nepalese Football Marks 30 Yrs". Goal Nepal.

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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