Police detain at least 50 in sports-related incident

Police detained at least 50 people Wednesday night for a fracas on the street and at Metro Line 1 (Piraeus-Kifissia) which resulted in at least one injury.

According to somewhat confusing media reports, two groups of individuals went at its other, first near Iraklio station, where some people attacked a single individual, who was severely beaten up. Then the same, or another group, went into the metro station and got hold of fire extinguishers, which they intended to use as weapons. 

Bike patrol police made the arrests at Nerantziotissa station in the northern Athens suburb of Maroussi, but there were incidents of groups of people attacking each other as far as Attiki station, ten stations to the south, with startled passengers scampering away from the violence.

At least one of the groups, presumably Panathinaikos supporters, were headed to watch a women’s volleyball match when they were confronted by the other.

The game, between Panathinaikos and Czech club Ostrava, was held at Agios Thomas arena in Maroussi, for the CEV Challenge Cup, the third-tier European volleyball competition for men and women, behind Champions League and CEV Cup. There were no incidents in the game itself.

Sports events, such as the one held yesterday, are often used by soccer hooligans from various clubs to meet and clash; they don’t go there for the love of the game, but purely for the trouble they expect to happen, which mostly, but not always, takes place outside the venue itself.

As of early Thursday, there was no information about what other club’s hooligans were involved in the fracas.