One person dies as police fire tear gas at Gimnasia y Esgrima fans in La Plata, Argentina

At least one person died as police clashed with football fans trying to push into an Argentine league match on Thursday night, with the referee stopping the match as clouds of tear gas filled the stadium.

According to authorities, fans of the home team, Gimnasia y Esgrima, struggled to enter the already full stadium, and police resorted to firing rubber bullets and tear gas to try to get the crowd to retreat.

The incident came less than a week after the use of tear gas outside a football match in Indonesia set off a crush that left 131 people dead.

Nine minutes into Thursday night’s match between Gimnasia and Boca Juniors, referee Hernan Mastrangelo suspended play. 

The league said on Twitter that the match referee reacted because of the lack of security.

Players retreated to their changing rooms, and many spectators flooded onto the field trying to escape the tear gas. Chaos continued outside the stadium as fans choked on the police’s tear gas.

Parents were pictured holding their children and pulling jumpers over their mouths. Other children were separated from their parents during the incident on Thursday evening.

‘Unfortunately there is one person dead. He died of a heart problem,’ Sergio Berni, the province’s security minister, told broadcaster Todo Noticias.

Mr Berni gave no further details about the circumstances in which that person died.

The horrific pictures show some fans scaling fences to escape the smoke, and carrying their young children to protection from the crush. 

Only Gimnasia fans were in Juan Carmelo Zerillo stadium in La Plata, as Buenos Aires province banned supporters of visiting teams from matches in 2013 amid frequent outbreaks of violence.

The Argentine Football Association posted a statement on Twitter condemning the incident in La Plata.  

‘The AFA strongly repudiates the events that took place today in the vicinity of Gimnasia stadium and expresses its commitment to continue working to eradicate this kind of incidents that tarnishes the spirit of football.’

No new date was announced for resuming the match.

Some fans claimed there had been overselling of tickets amid excitement over the encounter between two teams fighting for the league title, saying people likely became anger when they could not get into the stadium.

In its security protocols, FIFA advises against the use of tear gas in or around stadiums in order to avoid risky situations such as in La Plata or in the Indonesian city of Malanga last Saturday, when many of the dead were crushed to death during the stampede of fans.

During the incident in Indonesia earlier this week, thousands of fans rushed onto the pitch with police firing tear gas in response. During the crush, and with people trying to escape, fans were trampled, with 133 killed.