Uproar in Italy after fan death
Monday, 12 Nov 2007 15:16
Cristiano Sandri mourns the death of his brother Gabriele at the scene of the shooting
The Italian football authorities are to hold crisis talks today after 200 people stormed police barracks in Rome to protest a fan's death.
A number of games in the Serie A programme were disrupted or abandoned by fan violence in the latest instance of severe crowd trouble in a matter of months.
In February this year all top-flight football in Italy was suspended after a policeman was killed during clashes of rival fans at the Sicilian derby between Catania and Palermo.
Yesterday, hundreds of fans attacked a barracks in protest at the killing of Gabriele Sandri, a 26-year-old Lazio fan who was in a car with friends.
Mr Sandri was shot in the neck by a police officer who was trying to break up a brawl between Lazio and Juventus fans at a motorway rest stop near the Tuscan city of Arezzo.
An officer said some of the attackers, wielding rocks and clubs, set cars on fire and smashed the building's windows.
Vincenzo Giacobbe, the police chief in Arezzo, said: "It was a tragic error. Our agent intervened to prevent the scuffles between two small groups of people from degenerating.
"I express my deep grief and sincere condolences to the family of the victim."
The tragic death led to Lazio's match with Serie A champions Inter Milan to be postponed.
In the northern city of Bergamo, Atalanta's match with AC Milan was abandoned after supporters tried to smash down a glass barrier keeping them from the pitch.
AS Roma's game with Cagliari was also called off but fans of both Rome clubs threw firecrackers in clashes with police outside the Olympic Stadium, according to local reports.
A third-division match in the southern city Taranto was also called off because of crowd violence.