Elite Indonesian police officers were investigated Tuesday over a stadium stampede that killed 125 people, including dozens of children, in one of the deadliest disasters in football history.

As public anger over the tragedy mounted, police punished those responsible for the crowds in the city of Malang, which witnesses said began when officers fired tear gas at packed grandstands to quell a pitch invasion.

Arema FC fans set up a makeshift center to receive legal complaints in Malang on Monday and said they would file a lawsuit against officials for what they said have caused dozens of deaths by indiscriminately targeting spectators in narrow ranks.

Police described the incident as a riot and said two officers were killed, but survivors say they overreacted.

“If there was a riot, it (the tear gas) should be fired onto the field, not the stands,” Danny Agung Prasetyo, coordinator of the Arema DC support group, told AFP.

“Many of the victims were those who were on the witness stand. They panicked because of the tear gas.”

The local police chief was replaced on Monday, nine officers were suspended and 19 others were under investigation over the disaster that hit the stadium, which was filled only with hometown Arema FC fans, national police spokesman Dedi Prasetyo said.

The Indonesian government has suspended the country’s national league and announced a task force to investigate the tragedy. The investigation was said to take two to three weeks.

The terraces of Kanjuruhan Stadium were filled with thousands of young “Aramania” or Arema FC fans watching their team play against bitter rivals Persebaya Surabaya.

But after a 3-2 loss, their first home loss in more than two decades, to their opponents from East Java’s largest city, fans flocked to the pitch to chat with players and management.

Police responded violently to the pitch invasion by stepping on fans and hitting them with batons, according to witnesses and video footage, prompting more fans to join the crowd on the pitch.

Calls for an independent investigation have been growing since details of the onslaught emerged over the weekend.

“We will find out what really happened, about the violence and the excessive use of force,” Choirul Anam, a commissioner with the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM), said at a news conference on Monday.

“Why would you kick someone who just ran at the edge of the field?”

The fans’ anger was evident at the stadium, where a police truck was set on fire and the walls were covered in graffiti reading ‘Tear gas against mother’s tears’ and ‘Our friends died here’.

More vigils were planned in Malang on Tuesday, after Arema FC fans and players gathered outside the stadium a day earlier to lay flowers at the scene and pray for the victims.

Among the dead were 32 children, an official with the Department of Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection told AFP, adding the youngest was a toddler, just three or four years old.

Indonesia’s Health Ministry said all victims of the stampede have now been identified.

Of the hundreds injured, 68 were seriously injured and 219 moderately injured.

Twenty-six are still being treated for their wounds, Health Ministry official Siti Nadia Tarmizi told state news agency Antara.

Soccer fan violence is an ongoing problem in Indonesia and Persebaya Surabaya fans have been banned from the game because of it.

But fans said it wasn’t their fault.

Indonesian officials said more tickets had been allocated than should have been, while some doors at the stadium appeared to be closed, according to witnesses.

As a result, physically stronger supporters had to scale tall fences to escape the chaos, while the weakest were left to the crush as tear gas rained down.

“The doors were closed, so people pushed. Some have “laid in the corner” to escape the crush, a 16-year-old survivor of the chaos told AFP.

“There were some people in the stands who were hit directly. I saw it myself,” he said.

Anything that could go wrong at a football match seemed to happen on Saturday night, culminating in an unprecedented disaster at an Indonesian stadium.

“You could see and sense that something bad could possibly happen. That’s the kind of fear you usually get when you travel here for a game,” Indonesian football expert Pangeran Siahaan told AFP.

“Every time you go to a football stadium in Indonesia, there are many dangers lurking.”