One dead, dozens hurt in stampede before Iraq, Oman Gulf Cup final

BASRA, Iraq: One person was killed and dozens injured Thursday (Jan 19) when a stampede broke out outside a football stadium in Iraq hours before the Gulf Cup final, officials said.

Long banned from hosting international football matches, war-torn Iraq had been counting on the Gulf Cup to burnish its image but it had already been forced to apologise for organisational lapses.

Thousands of fans, many without tickets, had gathered outside the stadium in Iraq's main southern city of Basra since dawn in the hope of watching the final between Iraq and Oman, which was due to kick off at 7pm local time.

"There has been one death and dozens of slight injuries," a medic said.

An interior ministry official gave the same toll. "A large number of fans, many of them without tickets, had gathered since first light to try to get in," the official said.

An AFP photographer inside the stadium said the turnstiles were still closed when the stampede broke out. Sirens blared as ambulances arrived to ferry the injured to the hospital.

Images posted on social media showed a sea of people outside the stadium.

Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani chaired a meeting with key ministers and the governor of Basra to discuss "special measures for the Gulf Cup final", his office said.

He headed to Basra to oversee the situation on the ground, it added.

The army called on the fans to heed the instructions of security force personnel on access to the stadium to allow the championship to be "wrapped up in a civilised fashion that does honour to Iraq".

Iraq has been the scene of deadly stampedes in the past, most recently in Karbala during the Ashura commemorations of 2019, when 31 people died.

Football is by far Iraq's biggest spectator sport and the rare