Fan's death sparks renewed violence

Italian policemen and supporters clash near Rome's Olympic Stadium on Sunday. An Italian police officer shot and killed a man on Sunday when rival fans clashed at a service station in Tuscany, officials said. AFP

The victim, named as 26-year-old Gabriele Sandri, was killed by a police officer at a motorway service station in Arezzo in what was a "tragic error", authorities in the central Tuscany region said.

The death comes just nine months after a police officer was killed outside the Catania Stadium in Sicily, leading the government to reinforce measures against violence in stadia.

The Catania tragedy in February led to a suspension of Italian football, with numerous stadia forced to make improvements to ensure improved security.

A new body, the National Observer for Sporting Events, was created by the Italian government to help stamp out violence.

But the progress which the body claimed to have made with a reported 70 percent decline in hooliganism, was hit on Sunday by the shooting dead of Sandri by a police officer who had intervened following a fight between supporters of rival Serie A football teams Juventus and Lazio.

According to witness reports, Sandri was traveling to Milan by car with other fans to attend the match against Inter Milan when they clashed with Juventus fans at a service station.

A police officier who was in the area intervened and Sandri, who was sitting in his car, was fatally hit in the neck by gunfire.

"Our officer intervened to ensure that skirmishes between two groups of people, who had not been identified as (football) fans, did not degenerate with serious consequences for both parties," local prefect Vincenzo Giacobbe said.

The Italian Football Federation later announced that the match between Lazio and Inter Milan had been postponed.

As a mark of respect, seven other Serie A matches scheduled Sunday started 10 minutes late with the players and referees wearing black armbands. But the atmosphere was tense and clashes broke out before several games.

Outside the stadium in Rome, where the game between AS Roma and Cagliari had also been canceled, at least three people and six policeman were injured, one of the latter seriously, in clashes, according to the ANSA news agency.

Hundreds of football fans, many masked and carrying batons, attacked a police barracks, burning a bus and several other vehicles.

The mobile crowd then succeeded in breaking into the nearby headquarters of the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI), where they looted offices and exploded a powerful firecracker.

The police responded by launching several charges into the crowd and firing tear gas cannisters. Three people, including one woman, were arrested as police brought the situation under control.

In Bergamo, Atalanta fans clashed with police before their home game against AC Milan, forcing the referee to halt play seven minutes after kickoff.

The Atalanta "ultras" charged the protection glass separating fans from the pitch, breaking it in two places.

Several players from the Bergamo club tried to reason with the fans but to no avail. After several minutes, referee Massimiliano Saccani sent both teams back into the locker room. The game was later suspended.

In Milan, some 400 fans threw stones at police headquarters, while outside the stadium Lazio and Inter supporters chanted anti-police slogans.

In Siena, before the tie against Livorno, supporters shouted "murderers" at police and security officers, a scene reproduced in other stadia.

Third-placed Juventus fought back from a two-goal deficit at Parma to force a 2-2 draw thanks to second-half goals from Nicola Legrottaglie and Vincenzo Iaquinta while second-placed Fiorentina lost 2-1 at home to Udinese after the visitors scored a late winner through Antonio Di Natale.

Inter Milan hung on to the league lead, with 25 points, two points ahead of Fiorentina and also with a game in hand.

AFP

(China Daily 11/13/2007 page23)