Fans cry in anguish at Ghana soccer disaster

ACCRA, May 9 (Reuters)(DS) - Wails of anguish echoed around a soccer stadium in Ghana's capital Accra on Wednesday as scores of bodies piled up from the third football disaster in Africa in a month.

"People were crying, people were wailing," said Mohamed Anwar, a fan who watched in horror as the match between arch-rivals Hearts of Oak and Kumasi Asante Kotoko turned into a disaster in wich more than 100 people were feared killed after police fired tear gas into the crowd.

"It was all men that you saw," Anwar said, describing bodies laid out in and outside the city's main stadium, which was packed with fans braving pouring rain to see the match. With less than 15 minutes to go in the game, two goals in quick succession put Hearts 2-1 ahead. Angry Asante fans ripped up plastic chairs and hurled them on to the pitch.

"There was tension, there was fear and then the tension went out of control," Anwar said.

Police fired teargas to regain control, but spectators stampeded to escape the clouds of gas and trampled bodies were left strewn around the stadium.

"There was a mad rush out of the stadium," Anwar said. "There was smoke and there was debris, and I counted at least 15 people lying on the floor in one part of the stadium. Some were injured and apparently some were dead.

"People who fell were lying on the floor. You could see that they were clearly dead."

Families fearing for their loved ones crowded round a military hospital in Accra where the dead and injured were taken.

"A lot of the families had relatives who had gone to the stadium and had not come home," said Thyron Adusu, a local journalist who visited the hospital. "You had a crowd forming around the hospital. It was virtually impossible to get in." "With my eyes I saw almost 70 bodies," he added. He said he had seen many injured people lying on beds and on the floor of the hospital.

A private radio broadcaster said he had counted more than 100 bodies, while a state television official put the unconfirmed death toll at 120.

It was Africa's third lethal soccer disaster in a month. On April 11, 43 soccer fans were crushed to death when fans tried to force their way into Johannesburg's huge Ellis Park stadium midway through a top domestic league match.

Less than three weeks later seven people were killed and 51 injured in the Democratic Republic of Congo when police moved to break up rioting at a soccer match.