Italian Soccer Fans Riot After Shooting

Cops call shooting "tragic error" after mob attacks police barracks
By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 11, 2007 7:11 PM CST
Italian Soccer Fans Riot After Shooting
Cristiano Sandri, left, is comforted by an unidentified person after his brother Gabriele Sandri was killed on a highway near Arezzo, central Italy, Sunday, Nov. 11, 2007. Sandri, a Lazio soccer fan, was killed Sunday during a clash with Juventus team supporters at a highway rest stop, and authorities...   (Associated Press)

The police shooting of an Italian soccer fan sparked riots and police clashes across the country today, the BBC reports. Hundreds in Rome torched a bus, smashed cop cars, and attacked a police barracks. In Milan, one game was stopped when angry fans tried to storm the field; more violence erupted in southern Italy at lower league games. "It was a tragic error," a police chief said of the killing.

The shooting occurred in Tuscany, when a cop killed Gabriele Sandri, 26, possibly with a warning shot. "Our agent had intervened to prevent the brawl between two groups [of fans], who had not been identified as fans," the chief said. Italian PM Romano Prodi called the rioting "very worrying" and ordered a probe of the shooting. (More soccer stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X