World -   

1

18 hospitalized after Barcelona soccer celebrations

Riot police officers walk past a burning flare during clashes with Barcelona F.C. supporters following their Champions League final soccer match against Manchester United, in Barcelona, Sunday, May 29, 2011. (AP / Job Vermeulen)
Riot police officers walk past a burning flare during clashes with Barcelona F.C. supporters following their Champions League final soccer match against Manchester United, in Barcelona, Sunday, May 29, 2011. (AP / Job Vermeulen)

View Larger Image

A A |  Email ThisEmail  | Print Facebook   

Date: Sunday May. 29, 2011 10:45 AM ET

BARCELONA — Street parties in Barcelona celebrating the victory of the city's soccer team in the Champions League final turned violent early Sunday and at least 18 people were hospitalized, according to local media reports.

Police said more than 80 people were arrested after revellers attacked officers with bottles, flares and other objects, and destroyed park benches and bus stops. The scuffles broke out hours after Barcelona beat Manchester United 3-1 at Wembley Stadium in England on Saturday night. About 50,000 people flooded the streets of Barcelona to celebrate.

A police officer was among those hospitalized. AP photographs show plainclothes police officers, who were wearing Barcelona jerseys to blend in with the crowds, making arrests. More than 100 other people were hurt, but they didn't require hospitalization and were treated at the scene by paramedics for cuts and bruises.

An unnamed 17-year-old woman died accidentally when she slipped and fell into a deep hole beside a fountain while celebrating the win in the northwestern town of Santa Comba, local newspaper La Voz de Galicia reported.

Soccer fans had poured shampoo into the fountain to create bubbles, which concealed an uncovered manhole that led to the fountain's pump, the paper said.

The team was expected to arrive in Barcelona with the Champions League trophy Saturday afternoon, with tens of thousands of fans expected to line the streets to celebrate the victory. The festivities will culminate at the 98,000-seat Camp Nou Stadium at around 3 p.m. ET, the club said in a statement.

Share with your social Network:

Facebook DIGG Newsvine Delicious Twitter StumbeUpon Reddit Yahoo! Buzz

 

Advertisement

Contest

Today's World Stories

Former Liberian President Charles Taylor waits for the start of his sentencing judgement in the courtroom of the Special Court for Sierra Leone in Leidschendam, near The Hague, Netherlands, Wednesday May 30, 2012.  (AP / Toussaint Kluiters)

Charles Taylor gets 50 years for 'brutal' crimes

More   5 Comments 5    2 Video(s) 2

This frame grab made from an amateur video provided by Syrian activists on Monday, May 28, 2012, purports to show the massacre in Houla on May 25 that killed more than 100 people, many of them children. (AP / Amateur Video via AP video)

UN observers in Syria discover 13 bound corpses

More

Pakistani doctor Shakil Afridi taken in Pakistani tribal area of Jamrud in Khyber region, July 9, 2010. (AP / Qazi Rauf)

Pakistan doctor guilty of militancy, not CIA links

More