At least 12 people have died and some 100 are seriously injured after a stampede at a soccer stadium in El Salvador.

The match between FC Alianza and CD FAS was cancelled, as rescue workers scrambled to save lives.

The incident occurred on Saturday as fans tried to enter the stadium.

“It all started in the Sol General sector, where there was mass panic due to the excess number of tickets sold, affecting 500 people,” the director of the civil defence agency, Luis Alonso Amaya, said late on Saturday.

Local newspaper La Prensa Gráfica reported that fans had complained the stadium was already overcrowded with many people waiting to get in.

“There were only two gates open in the whole stadium,” one fan said.

“The people outside wanted to force their way in, they all fell on us,” the fan told the newspaper.

Another fan, Sandra Argueta, said children and elderly people were affected and the gate had to be kicked down “to get some air because there were a lot of people and we were suffocating”.

The newspaper described the panicked crowd on the sidelines of the first division match as a “human avalanche”.