WORLD CUP PARTY ENDS WITH CLASHES, ARRESTS AND INJURIES

Argentina’s World Cup celebrations ended on a sad note on Tuesday as police and firefighters clashed with fans in the centre of Buenos Aires.

Security officials said that a total of 31 people were injured at the huge festivities out of an estimated crowd of five million. A total of 13 arrests had been made at the time of writing.

The TN news channel reported Wednesday that at least one individual had died in the celebrations after falling from a roof to a parking lot three floors below.

“Most of the injured were taken to different hospitals in the city, such as Fernández, Ramos Mejía, Rivadavia, Durand and Argerich, all of them with multiple traumas, but none of them serious,” said Alberto Crescenti, head of the SAME emergency services.

The most visible spell of unrest, however, came at around 8pm at night, when security personnel, reinforced by firefighters, arrived at the Obelisk to evict fans who had broken into the structure and scaled its height.

Police sources told the La Nación newspaper that fans had resisted attempts to disperse them and began “throwing stones and bottles.”at least four individuals who were inside the Obelisk were arrested, they said.

There were several other incidents of unrest recorded in the city, especially the theft of tyres from parked cars, damage to traffic lights and lamp posts. There were also problems on the Metrobus line, where fans scaled roofs, breaking them and other elements of the bus stops in the process.

There was also extensive damage to the Obelisk, which was covered in graffiti at its base and will need cleaning.