At least 56 killed in southeastern city after rival fans stormed the pitch following a controversial referee decision.

At least 56 people have been killed after violent clashes during a football match led to a stampede in Guinea’s second-largest city of N’Zerekore, according to the government.

“Protests of dissatisfaction with refereeing decisions led to stone-throwing by supporters, resulting in fatal stampedes” at Sunday’s match, the government statement said on Monday, published as a news ticker on national television.

“Hospital services have put the provisional death toll at 56.”

The violence broke out during a match on Sunday afternoon in N’Zerekore, home to 200,000 people, where rival fans stormed the field following a controversial referee decision, news site Guineenews reported.

Earlier, health officials quoted by the AFP news agency put the death toll in the dozens.

“There are bodies lined up as far as the eye can see in the hospital,” said the doctor. “Others are lying on the floor in the hallways. The morgue is full.”

Guinea’s Prime Minister Bah Oury condemned the violence and urged calm in a statement posted on X on Sunday. He said the government would issue a release once it gathered all the information.

Police station ablaze

The clashes began after supporters of the visiting team, Labe, hurled stones at the pitch in anger over a referee call, prompting the police to deploy tear gas, according to local news site Mediaguinee.

Later, angry demonstrators also vandalised and set fire to the N’Zerekore police station, Guineenews reported.

“It all started with a contested decision by the referee. Then fans invaded the pitch,” a witness told AFP.

According to Mediaguinee, the match was part of a tournament organised in honour of Guinea’s military leader, Mamady Doumbouya, who seized power in a 2021 coup and has installed himself as president.

Such tournaments have become common in the West African nation as Doumbouya eyes a potential run in the presidential election likely next year.

Guinea’s National Alliance for Alternation and Democracy (ANAD), a coalition of opposition parties, blasted the tournament, calling it an attempt to advance Doumbouya’s “illegal and inappropriate candidacy”.

Doumbouya seized power by force in September 2021, overthrowing the government of President Alpha Conde, who had placed the then-colonel in charge of an elite force tasked with protecting the head of state from such coups.

Under international pressure, Doumbouya pledged to hand power back to a civilian government by the end of 2024 but has since made clear he will not.

The military leader “exceptionally” promoted himself to the rank of lieutenant general in January and last month elevated himself to the rank of army general.

Doumbouya has presided over an ongoing crackdown on dissent, with many opposition leaders detained, brought before the courts or forced into exile.

A “transitional charter” drawn up by the military rulers shortly after the coup said no member of the military could stand in either national or local elections.

But Doumbouya’s backers have recently expressed their support for his candidacy in the presidential election.

At the end of September, authorities indicated that elections intended to restore constitutional order would be held in 2025.

Doumbouya is one of several officers who have seized power in West Africa since 2020, along with military leaders in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger.

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Al Jazeera and news agencies