Many children died in Indonesia's stadium disaster. Her 3-year-old was one of the unfortunates
MUHAMMAD Virdy Prayoga, 3, was just getting to know the game.
He had watched his first match just a few months ago with his parents, and on Saturday he entered Kanjuruhan Stadium with more than 40 000 others streaming in to watch Indonesia’s second-largest derby.
Arema FC were facing off against Persebaya Surabaya, their rivals from East Java.
Virdy stood on his seat before kickoff, his eyes shining with excitement. He loved Arema FC; he loved watching the players far down on the pitch – and he loved being part of the crowd.
But as chaos overcame Kanjuruhan Stadium that night, culminating in what has become one of the deadliest sporting event disasters in the world, it was the crowd that took Virdy away from his mother.
As fallout continues from the tragedy, arguably one of the most wrenching figures has been the number of children reported dead. Initially, officials said that there were 17, but yesterday, Wiyanto Wijoyo, the head of the Malang Health Authority, said that the number had more than doubled to 40.
According to death certificates from local hospitals, he added, there were 131 fatalities in total.
On Saturday, after the match, which Arema lost, a group of Arema supporters had invaded the pitch and tried to approach players.
Police and military personnel responded aggressively, using batons and riot shields to beat back supporters before firing dozens of rounds of non-lethal munitions, including tear gas, on to the pitch and directly into the stands.
In the scramble to escape through the stadium’s narrow doors, some of which were locked, dozens of people suffocated or were trampled to death.
Desperate for the family to escape the thick cloud of tear gas, Elmiati’s husband, Rudi Hariyanto, 34, picked up Virdy as they tried to leave via gate 13. It was obstructed, allowing only one person at a time to pass through, Elmiati remembered. As people around her pushed to escape, she became separated from her husband and son.
Just after 11pm, she got a call. Virdy and Hariyanto were taken up in two different hospitals. Both had died.