AFCON:Eight killed ,many injured during stampede at Cameroon stadium

Nick Cavell, a producer for BBC Africa Sport, was at the match and says news of the crush did not seem to filter through to the crowd until there were reports on social media.

Images on social media show fans clambering over fences, rushing past checkpoints and trampling on unconscious supporters. Others show some trying to resuscitate their fellow fans.

Danish journalist Buster Emil Kirchner described seeing “a lot of chaos” as fans clamoured to enter the ground through a single open gate.

“It was hectic – people running, people climbing fences, people breaking through the barricades,” he told the BBC.

Another journalist, Leocadia Bongben, saw a commotion coming from one of the fan zone areas outside the stadium.

“People started shouting,” she told the BBC’s Newsday programme. “A minute after that an ambulance came to the stadium, but when we got to the place the police would not allow us to get close to where the stampede was.

“It’s really quite a sad situation that people go to watch a game and they end up dying there.”

Some of the injured were in a “desperate condition”, nurse Olinga Prudence told the Associated Press.