The victims fell 49 feet through a 10-foot wide hole in the concrete stands of the Fonte Nova stadium in the coastal city of Salvador, Bahia state secretary of sports Nilton Vasconcelos told the official Agencia Brasil news agency. Several people were injured.

Vasconcelos said government officials did not know of any structural problems before the accident last night, but that past renovations did not address the structural integrity of the stadium.

Fonte Nova, however, was highlighted as the worst of 29 major Brazilian soccer stadiums in a survey released this month by a Brazilian association of engineers and architects. The association said the stadium was unsafe, and that its stands were of particular concern.

The accident occurred as the game ended, when fans of the Bahia soccer team went into a wild celebration, storming the field because their team managed a 0-0 draw with Vila Nova, securing Bahia a place in the nation's second division.

Fans were jumping up and down in glee when the hole opened in the concrete floor of the stand and the victims fell several stories, landing on pavement.

Police initially said eight people were killed, but the government of Bahia state said today that seven had died.

About 60,000 people were at the stadium for the game, and many didn't realize that the section of bleachers had given way as they invaded the field in celebration.

The stadium was built in 1951, and the soccer stadium survey released Nov. 1 by Brazil's Sinaeco association of architects and engineers said Fonte Nova's stands were "in ruins."

The group's report featured pictures of crumbling support beams under the stands, and deemed Fonte Nova overall in "pitiful state, (with) no comfort or security for users."

The survey was conducted because Latin America's largest nation will host the 2014 World Cup, and the association wanted to give authorities an idea of the conditions of Brazil's major sports stadiums.

Salvador — a major Brazilian tourism destination — would almost certainly get some of the games. But Brazil did not include Fonte Nova as a possible venue in its preliminary list of 18 stadiums submitted to FIFA, soccer's governing body.

Instead, Brazil proposed building a new stadium by 2011 for Salvador in a different location that would named the Bahia Arena.

Brazil, which has won a record five World Cups, was awarded the right last month to host the 2014 tournament by FIFA. Latin America's largest country hosted the competition once before, in 1950