10,000 Chapecoense supporters attend vigil for plane crash victims

Around 10,000 people, including family, friends, and supporters of Monday night's victims from the Chapecoense plane tragedy, gathered at the Arena Conda on Wednesday for a vigil.

Of the 77 people BBC News reports were on board - lower than the previous number of 81 - just six survived. Three of those were Chapecoense players - Alan Ruschel, Helio Zampier Neto, and Jakson Follman - as the disaster occurred while the squad was en route to Wednesday's first leg of the Copa Sudamericana final against Atletico Nacional in Medellin, Colombia.

Related: Plane carrying a Brazilian soccer club crashes in Colombia; 71 dead

"The lights went out and I don't remember anything after that," said crew member Ximena Suarez, who survived the crash.

Those packed into the Arena Conda in Chapeco, southern Brazil donned the green and white colours of their team, sang the names of the players, and shouted "champions." Chapecoense had risen up the Brazilian football pyramid, narrowly missing out on the Serie A title last Sunday to Palmeiras and was about to embark on the final of South America's equivalent of the Europa League.

Team coach Caio Junior's assertion that his side was Brazil's equivalent to surprise Premier League winner Leicester City was, if anything, a disservice. The much-used summarisation of this catastrophe - a fairytale with an unhappy ending - is certainly apt.

"It is really hard to speak. We always come to the games. We'd come to the stadium and sit right in the same spot," said fan Daniel Marline at the mass wake.

"And we came here today, we sat here, but we know that this weekend, next week, our fighting team won't be here anymore in this stadium. It's tough. It's really tough."

Club supporters won't be alone in their sadness. Brazil president Michel Tamer declared three days of national mourning, and the outreach from Chapecoense's supposed league rivals has been phenomenal. The country's leading outfits have requested Chapecoense be exempt from relegation for three seasons, and have pledged to loan the team players free of charge.

"It is a minimal gesture of solidarity that is at our disposal at the moment," Brazilian giant Sao Paulo said in a statement.

Related: Brazilian clubs request relegation immunity for Chapecoense, offer to loan players

Wednesday's slated opponent, Colombian powerhouse and reigning Copa Libertadores champion Atletico Nacional, also made an official plea for the Copa Sudamericana be to awarded to their "brothers" from Brazil.

"I believe that it is the saddest day in the history of South American football," CONMEBOL president Alejandro Dominguez told Diario Catarinense, with translation from the Guardian's Tom Phillips. "There are no words to describe this pain."

Related: Football world pays tribute after Brazilian club's deadly plane crash