Return to Transcripts main page

Breaking News

Fans at Soccer Game Stampeded, Several Dead

Aired April 11, 2001 - 16:27   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOIE CHEN, CNN ANCHOR: Late development to report now happening in Johannesburg, South Africa. The report's with grizzly details; a very disturbing story from a soccer match there. Charlayne Hunter- Gault joins us now on the telephone line.

Charlayne, tell us what happened.

CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it appears that the football stadium has oversold the tickets. And when people demanded to get inside and they said no more tickets, a stampede has ensued. Now I am on the soccer field right now. And I want to see if I can confirm for you anything about the number of the...

Hello. I am with CNN television. Is there anyone here who can speak to what happened? Or give us a confirmation of anything, sir?

AMOS MASONDO, MAYOR, JOHANNESBURG: Yes.

HUNTER-GAULT: You are who, sir?

(UNINTELLIGIBLE)

HUNTER-GAULT: Oh, yes, Mr. Mayor. Can you please speak to CNN?

This is the mayor of Johannesburg. Mr. Amos Masondo. I will put him on the phone just now with CNN international. Mr. Mayor Masondo.

CHEN: Mayor Masondo? Yes, I hope that you can hear me. Can you tell us; we understand a number of people have died. Can you confirm that for us, sir?

MASONDO: Yes, we can confirm (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

CHEN: Mayor Mosando, please, if you can talk to us. We are seeing some very disturbing pictures on television.

MASONDO: Repeat the question again?

CHEN: Can you tell us how many people have died?

MASONDO: Many people have died? yes, our,, our...

CHEN: All right. We are having some trouble maintaining our connection to Johannesburg, South Africa. Again, this is still a very developing story. As you can see, our correspondent Charlayne Hunter- Gault had run down to the soccer field herself to try to get the details on the story, and was trying to bring us in touch with the mayor of Johannesburg to explain.

But let us tell you what we know. This is coming to us from the wire services that at least 24 people have died as a result of a very crowded soccer stadium. I understand that we have Charlayne Hunter- Gault...

All right. We're losing her. She's obviously in a difficult situation in the middle of that. But the information that we had is that the police believe that too many tickets had been sold for the soccer match; you saw some of the rather disturbing pictures of a number of people being taking care of on this big soccer field.

But the reports are from the police in Johannesburg that too many tickets were sold and too many people were in the stadium. And as a result of that, there had been some crowding, some problems and then the violence on the scene as people tried to get out of the stadium. There was something of a stampede erupting at the entrances.

Officials saying that nine people killed inside of the stadium and then 15 more outside of the stadium. There are many more injured, as you can see in these pictures. A number of bodies down on the ground. We understood that some of the bodies very covered with blankets.

This has been airing live on local television in Johannesburg for some time now and is obviously quite a disturbing scene there. But a lot of emergency personnel working on a number of people down on the ground inside of the stadium, and again, in Johannesburg, South Africa. The late reports from there.

And of course, we will continue to follow up with CNN's Charlayne Hunter-Gault in Johannesburg. She is our bureau chief there, down in the soccer stadium right now, trying to get more information for us. We will bring that to you as soon as we get that.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com