Ghana mourns Africa's worst soccer disaster

Authorities promised an inquiry into the stampede which spectators said was triggered by police firing tear gas after fans hurled…

Ghana mourned today for at least 120 people killed in Africa's worst soccer disaster. It is the soccer-mad continent's third deadly stadium disaster in a month.

Authorities promised an inquiry into the stampede which spectators said was triggered by police firing tear gas after fans hurled missiles at the end of yesterday's game between two of Ghana's leading teams - the arch-rivals Hearts of Oak and Asante Kotoko.

President John Kufuor

"I have set up an internal probe to investigate this tragedy. We're not going to shield anybody," Ghana's leading police officer Insp Gen Ernest Owusu-Poku told local Joy FM Radio.

President John Kufuor summoned his cabinet for an emergency meeting and his aides said a period of national mourning would be declared.

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President Kufuor, who was once Kotoko's club chairman, was clearly very shaken during a visit to the injured at the military hospital in the capital Accra. "This is really sad," he said.

An aide said the president had screamed when he first heard the news.

Brig Daniel Twum said 102 dead were brought to the military hospital and officials at two other hospitals confirmed a further 18 dead.

"Some died of suffocation but the majority seem to have been killed by being crushed," Brig Twum said. He said another 50 people had been injured but most were not in serious condition.