Overview

Kanjuruhan Stadium Disaster refers to a riot at an Indonesian football match between Persebaya Surabaya vs. Arema FC Malang that led to the death of over 174 people.

Background

The October 1st, 2022, Indonesian football match Liga 1 BRI between Persebaya Surabaya vs. Arema FC Malang was played at Kanjuruhan Stadium in Malang, Indonesia. It ended with Persebaya winning the match with a score of 3-2 Persebaya. The Arema supporters, known as "Aremania" began to rush the field in anger. Police started firing tear gas to stop the growing riot, but inadvertently escalated the situation, as people panicked and began to rush out of the stadium, while some people asphyxiated. As of October 2nd, 2022 at least 127 people had died as a result of asphyxiation and the crowd's stampede. Some fear the death toll could rise.^[1]

Several international media outlets, including ESPN^[2], The Guardian^[3], Al Jazeera^[4], Bloomberg^[5], and more published an article about the incident.

Online Reactions

The hashtag #PrayForKanjuruhan began trending on Twitter after the incident. On October 2nd, 2022, Twitter^[6] user @shellywoyla uploaded art of a mother crying at her child's funeral while yelling "ANAK SAYA CUMA NONTON BOLA" (Eng. "My child just want to watch football match"). The tweet received more than 40,100 likes and 7,800 retweets in eight hours (shown below, left). Hours later, Twitter^[7] user @GojekOnly uploaded art of a child with his father at Kanjuruhan Stadium with the caption "Tidak ada sepak bola, yang seharga nyawa manusia" (Eng. There is no football worth more than human life). The tweet received more than 56,400 likes and 15,400 retweets in seven hours (shown below, right).

Many international football clubs showed their condolences. On October 2nd, 2022, the Chelsea official Twitter^[8] account uploaded condolences about the disaster. The tweet received 37,500 likes and 10,800 retweets (shown below, left). On the same day, Manchester United's official Twitter^[9] account uploaded a similar tweet that received more than 99,600 likes and 27,500 retweets (shown below, left).

On October 2nd, 2022, Facebook^[10] user Ridwan Pe uploaded a list of hooligan football incidents showing the Kanjuruhan Stadium Disaster has already had the second-most deaths, below the Estadio Nacional Disaster in Lima, Peru in 1964 to the Seeep/Zeeeblogi MK 69.420 group. The post received more than 1,700 reactions and 610 shares (shown below, left). On the same day, Facebook^[11] user Angga Tamura uploaded an image macro with the caption "Bapak Madun ternyata benar. Sepakbola adalah hal yang buruk" (Eng. Madun's father was right, football is a bad thing). The post received more than 2,200 reactions and 2,900 shares (shown below, right).

Search Interest

External References