"
It was the first time
" that she attended a football match, anxiously relates Etik, barely holding back tears, speaking of his daughter who has been unconscious since the stampede that killed at least 125 people in the football stadium. from Malang in Indonesia.
In front of the intensive care unit, sitting cross-legged on the floor of Saiful Anwar Hospital, in the center of the city in East Java Island where one of the worst tragedies of the world took place n the history of football, this Indonesian is waiting for her daughter to wake up.
21-year-old Dian Pupita narrowly escaped death.
She found herself stuck in the crowd, and almost asphyxiated in a cloud of tear gas fired by the police.
The crowd movement worsened as panicked fans rushed for the exits.
When Dian doesn't come home on time Saturday night, Etik begins to worry.
“
She was supposed to be back around 11:30 p.m.
I called her but she did not pick up
, ”she recalls.
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vision of horror
She finally manages to contact a friend of her daughter, who tells her about the violence that occurred after the match.
Etik rushes to the hospital, enters the emergency room and finds himself faced with a vision of horror: Dian, with a broken shoulder and a red, swollen face.
"
I didn't think this was going to happen
," she breathes, still in shock.
“
I didn't know which team Arema was going to face.
It was only here (at the hospital) that I learned that Persebaya was the opponent
,” says Etik after waiting 12 hours in the establishment.
The stampede began when fans of local side Arema FC entered the pitch at Kanjuruhan Stadium after their side lost 3-2 to neighboring Persebaya Surabaya.
At the same hospital, 20-year-old Irgi Firdiansah remembers dragging Dian Puppita out of the stadium, while trying to survive the crowds of panicked spectators himself.
The place “
was full of smoke.
I couldn't see anything
,” he says, tears constantly streaming down his cheeks.
In the middle of the panicked crowd, he recounts having been pushed, immobilized, before being caught up in the jostling as he tried to reach the exit of the stadium.
His hands are covered in bruises from being trampled on by the crowd.
But Irgi Firdiansah is one of the lucky ones as he managed to escape, taking Dian out of the stadium with him.
“
I continued to cling to her, even though I didn't know her condition
,” the survivor mutters in a low voice, visibly distressed by the incident.
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After the match, chaos invaded the hospital, which had to deal with a massive influx of casualties all at once.
A five-year-old boy and several other children are among the victims.
At least 323 people were also injured in the tragedy.
Many victims lost their lives due to lack of oxygen, asphyxiated or even trampled by the public.
At nightfall, the relatives of the victims were still outside the hospital, lying on mattresses waiting for news.
Some hold their faces in their hands, praying for the survival of their loved ones.
Others settle on beds within the hospital to spend the night there.
From time to time, a name is spoken over a megaphone: a signal for family members of good or bad news.
Before her daughter was rushed to intensive care, Etik took her hand and whispered in her ear, "
You need to be strong and wake up soon
."
She hopes these words will not be the last her daughter will hear.
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