10 held over huge brawl that left two dozen injured at Mexican football game
Authorities in Mexico said they have arrested 10 suspects over a huge brawl among football fans that left more than two dozen people injured, three critically.
Guadalupe Murguia, the interior secretary of Queretaro state, said a total of 26 people had been identified as participating in the brawl and that raids and searches with warrants were continuing in several cities to find the others.
The state has suspended five officials after security forces at the stadium were unable to control the violence. They include police and civil defence employees, and three people responsible for planning and preparations.
The private company partly responsible for security at the stadium also had its contracts cancelled.
All matches in Mexico’s top division were cancelled on Sunday and the league may impose bans on fans attending away matches.
Saturday’s match was suspended in the 62nd minute after multiple fights broke out in the stands. Security personnel opened the gates to the field so that fans, including women and children, could escape the clashes.
After several minutes, some of the fights moved to the field, where some people were armed with chairs and metal bars.
One fan pulled a knife to cut the nets of one goal. Others destroyed one side’s bench and some fought in the tunnel to the field.
“What it seems to me is that what we saw was not a normal dispute between fans,” he said. “What happened there was something that looked different.”
He refused to comment on whether drug gangs were involved.
“What we want to avoid is having the barras of visiting teams in the stadiums,” Mr Lemus said.
Mikel Arriola, president of the MX League, said it would be likely to adopt biometric or facial recognition systems at stadiums to identify troublemakers.
“We have to implement digital security measures to identify those who attend, starting with the barras,” he said, adding he would propose at a club owners meeting that those clubs be barred from away matches.