Violence flares as football fans clash


A clash between hundreds of soccer fans around Shanghai's Hongkou Football Stadium last night after a match between Shanghai and Hangzhou escalated into a massive gang fight, injuring dozens of people.

Hundreds of police officers including the riot squads and the armed police were dispatched to Dalian Road W, Hongkou District, to deal with the chaos.

After a persuasion, the conflict was solved early this morning with the last bus of the Hangzhou fans leaving at 0:40am.

So far the exact number of the injured is unclear.

A number of fans from both Shanghai Shenhua Football Club and Hangzhou Lucheng Football Club, who allegedly triggered the clash, were taken away by the police and the cause is still under investigation.

"What for? Hope every Shenhua fan is fine and arrives home peacefully," said Shenhua's goalkeeper Wang Dalei on his micro blog early this morning.

The clash happened around 11pm after Shanghai beat Hangzhou 3-2 with a last minute goal. Buses of Lucheng fans were smashed by the home fans and at least two Lucheng fans were injured with fractures, witnesses said.

Although neither of the teams is impossible to win the season's championship, the match between the two was still a fierce and eye-catching one as always, which was dubbed Yangtze Delta Derby.

With a better economic support, Lucheng purchased many core players from Shenhua these years, which made the latter's fans more mad at them.

Lucheng ranks the eighth this season and still has a chance for next year's Asian Champions League while Shenhua takes the 12th spot of the 16 teams and may slip close to the relegation zone.