Eight die as wall collapses amid clashes between fans at Senegal football league cup final in Dakar

Police started firing tear gas to disperse the crowd, causing further panic

Crowd safety at football matches in Senegal has been a cause for concern for many years (Getty)

A crowd stampede at a football match in Senegal has killed eight people, including a young girl, and injured around 60.

It was triggered when a wall collapsed onto supporters at the league cup final between local rivals US Ouakam and Stade de Mbour.

After 90 minutes, with the game deadlocked at 1-1, Mbour scored, prompting angry Ouakam fans to start throwing stones at opposition supporters.

To avoid being pelted by the missiles, people started leaving their seats in a surge, said an AFP journalist who was at the game.

In the melee, part of a wall collapsed onto both sets of fans.

In the crush, police started firing tear gas to disperse the crowd, causing further panic.

Pictures were posted on social media appearing to show fans climbing over a low wall, with gas clouds in the air.

Cheikh Maba Diop, whose friend was killed, told the AFP news agency: “All of a sudden when the wall fell... we knew exactly that some of our own had lost their lives because the wall fell directly on to people.”

Ambulances and teams of firefighters were still at the scene of the accident in Dakar late on Saturday night.

Sports minister Matar Ba pledged “strong measures so that such an event will never be repeated in Senegal”.

Campaigning for the forthcoming legislative elections on 30 July would be suspended on Sunday out of respect for those who lost their lives, a spokesman for the country’s President Macky Sall said, according to the BBC.

The Senegal president also threatened that there would be reprisals for the tragedy.

“Outraged by the incidents at the Demba Diop Stadium. The light will be cast on this tragedy. Those responsible will be identified and sanctioned,” Sall on Twitter, in French.

Lack of safety at the match was criticised by eyewitness Mara Die Diouf. “What I find terrible is that we have this kind of final in this kind of stadium here where there isn’t enough security,” he said.