A Manchester United fan was hospitalized after suffering a stab wound and nine people, including both United and Barcelona supporters, were arrested by Italian police in separate incidents ahead of last night’s Champions League final in Rome.
As up to 50,000 United and Barcelona supporters converged on Rome for the highly anticipated game, huge numbers of police patrolled the city. While many fans peacefully took to the cobblestoned streets of Rome, scattered episodes of violence were reported in and outside the Italian capital.
Police said that a United fan was taken to the Santo Spirito hospital after he was stabbed in the thigh in the early hours of yesterday morning. They did not identify the victim.
The fan reported that he had been attacked by four people near his hotel in the Vatican area.
Separately, two United fans were arrested for assaulting bystanders and police in Campo de Fiori, a historical piazza and popular tourist hangout.
Police said the men, aged 19 and 45 but not identified, were drunk.
“They will watch the match from a TV inside the Regina Coeli prison,” a police statement said.
Three Barcelona fans were arrested after a police search in their car turned up blunt objects, police said. The three were traveling from Civitavecchia, a port near Rome where hundreds of Spanish fans had arrived by ship.
In yet another incident, four Italians were arrested in Ostia, on the coast near Rome, after they attacked an American, apparently mistaking him for a United supporter. The US citizen was beaten up and had been stabbed in his thigh and backside, police said.
Some 30,000 fans from England and 20,000 from Spain arrived, largely on dozens of charter flights at Rome’s airports.
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