Report: Three dead after riot breaks out between fans before Honduran soccer game
Three people were killed and 10 others were injured before a soccer match in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, on Saturday night after a confrontation between fans escalated as a team bus arrived at the stadium, according to ABC News.
According to the Associated Press, a group of Olimpia fans allegedly started attacking the Montagua team bus as it pulled up to the stadium with stones. Three players were injured by flying glass.
The incident reportedly escalated quickly as Montagua fans got involved, and gunfire was heard. Police used tear gas to disperse the riot, and have arrested one suspect who allegedly participated with guns, according to the Associated Press.
The game was then canceled.
📍El Fútbol Club Motagua, no se presentará al partido contra Olimpia por los actos vandálicos que sufrió nuestro equipo por aficionados de la Ultra Fiel en su camino al estadio nacional, donde tenemos varios jugadores heridos por los vidrios. pic.twitter.com/p00xz36Adt
— Fútbol Club Motagua (@MOTAGUAcom) August 18, 2019
“Montagua Soccer Club will not be present for the match against Olimpia due to the acts of vandalism that our team suffered by fans of the Ultra Faithful on their way to the national stadium, where we have several players injured by glass,” Montagua tweeted in Spanish, via ABC News.
The club then shared pictures of the three injured players, Emilio Izaguirre, Roberto Moreira and Jonathan Rougier, receiving treatment in a local hospital.
📍🏥 Nuestros jugadores, Emilio Izaguirre, Roberto Moreira y Jonathan Rougier, están siendo atendidos en un centro hospitalario después del ataque vandálico a nuestro bus pic.twitter.com/8rptzSYmZk
— Fútbol Club Motagua (@MOTAGUAcom) August 18, 2019
Liga SalvaVida apologized for the incident between the two teams, which both call the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa home.
“La Liga SalvaVida condemns the deplorable acts of violence that took place tonight between fans of Club Deportiva Olimpia and Futbol Club Motagua on the outskirts of the national stadium of Tegucigalpa and in which, according to information from the capital's medical centers, there have been victims and those seriously injured,” the league said in a statement in Spanish, via ABC News.
Olimpia president Rafae Villeda condemned the actions of the fans shortly after the incident, too.
“We regret these situations and I call on the fans of Olimpia and other teams in the National League to avoid performing these acts which damage soccer,” Villeda said, via the Associated Press.
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