Former Hearts of Oak winger, Laryea Kingston has revealed he had a near brush with death on the 9th May 2001 as he planned  going to the Accra Sports Stadium to watch Hearts play Kotoko.

But for the torrential rains that prevented him from setting off he may have been part of the many who perished.

On that fateful day, 127 soccer fans perished after Hearts beat Kotoko 2-1 in a Ghana Premier League game.

Disgruntled Kotoko fans hurled plastic chairs on to the field and the police reacted by firing tear gas into the stands while the exits of the stadium were locked resulting in a stampede killing over 100 soccer fans.

"On May 9th 2001 I was at home in Accra and planned going to the stadium to go and watch the Hearts vs Kotoko game as I was going to sign for Accra Hearts of Oak."

"I had planned to go and watch the game from the Ade Coker stands where a lot of the casualty happened because I usually sat at the VIP stands but since I was about signing for Hearts of Oak the fans were pestering me with a lot of questions about when my ICT will arrive so I decided that day to go and hide in the Ade Coker stands." he told Joy Sports.

"I had planned to go with two of my friends but immediately we were about to set off some torrential rainfall set in and since I heard the game will be live on TV we decided to watch it on TV."

"Any time May 9th comes. my two friends tell me If not for the rain maybe we would have been dead by now" he added.

It's 19 years down memory lane since the incident happened at the Accra Sports Stadium.