Uruguayan Fans Clash With Rio Police Before Libertadores Semi-final

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Uruguayan fans clash with Rio police before Libertadores semi-final 1

RIO DE JANEIRO, – Hundreds of fans of Uruguayan club Penarol ran riot on the Rio de Janeiro waterfront on Wednesday, setting fire to a bus and vandalizing beach-side kiosks, police said.

The violence lasted more than an hour until riot police armed with batons restored order and arrested at least 200 Uruguayans, Rio Governor Claudio Castro said.

The Uruguayan fans had arrived by bus for Wednesday’s South American Libertadores Cup semi-final first leg between their team and Rio’s Botafogo club.

According to police, the violence began when an Uruguayan fan was arrested for stealing a cellphone in a bakery in the Recreio Beach area on the west side of the city.

Angry Uruguayan fans moved to the beach, wrecking kiosks, overturning tables and fighting with local residents. They damaged parked cars and set fire to motor-bikes.

“Rio is not a place for trouble,”

Castro said on social media. “I ordered police to arrest them, take them to the police station and then escort them out of Rio. We have already detained more than 200.

“We won’t allow these criminals come to disrupt the daily lives of residents with such savagery and vandalism.”

The bus carrying Penarol’s team to the Nilton Santos stadium was delayed by two hours, with club president Ignacio Ruglio saying the vehicle had been attacked.

“They brought us at a pedestrian pace for almost two hours, the places where they put us, the stones they threw at us, they put us in the middle of the corral,” Ruglio told reporters after arriving at the venue.

“Today, nobody really controlled anything.”

Ruglio added that organisers CONMEBOL, South American football’s governing body, told them the delay was “incomprehensible” and agreed to push the start of the match back by 15 minutes to 9:45 p.m. (1245 GMT)

Penarol fans also fought with police on the same beach before a game against Flamengo last month, and in 2019, a Flamengo supporter died in a clash between Penarol and Flamengo fans in Rio.