BUENOS AIRES -- Argentine police arrested 123 soccer fans after 15 people were injured in an armed clash between fans of Boca Juniors and rival team Rosario Central on an Argentine highway, the country's police told media on Monday.

The police said the gunfight began at midnight on Sunday, close to the General Lagos toll on the Rosario-Buenos Aires highway, when Boca Juniors fans returning from a Boca-Colon match in the Buenos Aires state city of Santa Fe, ran into followers of Rosario Central returning from a Rosario-Banfield match in greater Buenos Aires.

The police arrested fans and took them to the Rosario Country House police station, and carried the injured to the Clemente Alvarez and Centenario hospitals.

Only three of the injured were severly hurt, suffering bullet wounds to the head. They were looked after in the San Nicolas Hospital intensive care unit.

The incident is similar to an April 2003 fatal clash between fans of Newell's Old Boys and River Plate, on Highway 9, close to the Buenos Aires state city of Zarate, which killed two Rosario fans and left 13 more people injured.

In the 2003 case, fans were travelling to away games: to Rosario in the case of River and to Buenos Aires for a Boca match for the Newell's fans.