Over 70 people were trampled to death and as many as 201 others were injured on Saturday morning when a panic stampede broke out at a football stadium in Pasig City, east of Metro Manila, officials said.
Vice President Noli de Castro told a news briefing aired live on television that at least 79 people died, while Health Secretary Francisco Duque said that the total number of fatalities was 71.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is expected to visit the site of the tragedy later Saturday, her chief aide Eduardo Ermita said.
Arroyo expressed sorrow over the incident and ordered all government agencies to extend their full support to the victims.
The dead and the injured were evacuated from the chaotic scene and police tried hard to maintain order while there were still more than 1,000 people remaining in and around the stadium.
Confined in police's traffic control, the standing crowd could not find way out but kept mostly calm, waiting for authority's order.
The cause of the incident is still under investigation. Some officials have said that a person in the crowd had shouted "bomb," triggering the stampede but survivors and police investigators said it was just the sheer crush of people, surging into a narrow passageway to enter the stadium.
(Xinhua News Agency February 5, 2006)
