Maradona viewing brings out thousands of fans

We just couldn’t let this stuff go …

Tens of thousands of fans, many weeping, filed past the coffin of soccer superstar Maradona on Thursday in ceremonies that mixed head-ofstate-like honors with the chaos of a rowdy stadium.

Viewing was halted shortly before 6 p.m. as the family wished and the body of the Argentine icon was taken away for burial, frustrating many who were waiting to pay their respects and causing new tensions at the gates of the cemetery.

About two dozen people gathered at Jardin Bella Vista cemetery for a private religious ceremony and the burial. Maradona was being buried next to his parents, Dalma and Diego.

Fans singing soccer anthems, some draped in the national flag, formed a line that stretched more than 20 blocks from the Plaza de Mayo, where Argentines gathered to celebrate the Maradona-led triumph in the 1986 World Cup.

But with the time for viewing the coffin at the nation’s presidential palace drawing short, police moved to cut off the back end of the crowd, enraging fans who hurled rocks and other objects at officers, who responded with rubber bullets.

The crowd overwhelmed organizers and the violence resulted in injuries and arrests, which led Maradona’s family to end the public visitation. The casket was placed in a car that carried the former footballer’s name on a paperboard by the window.

Desperate to say goodbye, Maradona’s fans climbed on the fences of the presidential mansion as if they were in a soccer stadium, while firefighters worked to clear the ground.

“Diego is not dead, Diego lives in the people,” people chanted as the coffin was taken to a cemetery outside Buenos Aires.