At least one football fan is dead following clashes between fans and police during an Argentine league match between Gimnasia La Plata and Boca Juniors on Thursday.
The match was stopped just nine minutes into the first half when the referee was made aware of a spate of potentially serious incidents transpiring outside of the stadium which had led to police deploying tear gas and rubber bullets.
It was reported that fans of Gimnasia had been attempting to gain entry to the already full stadium at the time of the unrest.
Only Gimnasia fans are permitted entry to their home ground, the Juan Carmelo Zerillo Stadium, after opposition supporters were banned from attending games there in 2013 following numerous incidents of crowd violence.
“Unfortunately, there is a dead person,” Sergio Berni, the Buenos Aires minister of security, said of the incident.
“He died of a heart problem when he was transported to the hospital.”
The cloud of tear gas subsequently entered the stadium, with footage from the incident showing fans and players alike covering their faces and supporters making their way onto the pitch to avoid crowd trouble.
The Argentina Football Association quickly addressed the incident on social media.
“The AFA strongly repudiates the events that took place today in the vicinity of Gimnasia stadium and expresses its commitment to continue working to eradicate this kind of incidents that tarnishes the spirit of football,” it wrote, via translation.
“The Argentine Football Association, headed by President Claudio Tapia, mourns the death of Cesar Gustavo Regueiro, a supporter of the club [Gimnasia], and sends its condolences to family and loved ones,” it added.
This incident came less than a week after the Indonesian football stadium disaster in which 125 people died after authorities attempted to quell crowd disturbances with tear gas, leading to fans being trampled and suffocated.
“My two-year-old son couldn’t breathe,” said Gimnasia player Leonardo Morales afterwards.
“We feel desperate and worried about all the people in the stands. This is crazy. We were playing a normal football game and it turned it into this and the feeling that our relatives almost died.”