Six arrested for fan violence

 

SIX PEOPLE were arrested Sunday as fan violence flared during and after a league-deciding match between Omonia and APOEL.

During the game, opposing sets of supporters hurled objects at each other, injuring one police officer caught in the crossfire. The officer was later treated for light injuries at Nicosia general hospital.

The final whistle saw a group of APOEL fans make their way to the stadium’s western stands, where they began pelting Omonia supporters with stones. Police broke up the group and arrested a 17-year-old from Nicosia. No injuries were reported, while the windshield of a Fire Department vehicle was smashed.

The worst trouble erupted after the match, as isolated groups of hooligans wearing the APOEL colours ambushed motorists in their cars as they left the stadium. Near Latsia, one driver was injured slightly after his car was pelted with stones.

A little later, APOEL fans wielding iron bars and bats attacked and terrorised passing cars on Makarios Avenue in Nicosia, Limassol Avenue and Stasinou Street. Police caught four youths in the act. A number of vehicles were damaged while some of the drivers suffered slight injuries.

In Limassol, a 21-year-old girl was placed under arrest after hurling a firecracker into a trailing car near the Ayios Nicolaos junction.

The youth, who was riding in the bed of a pickup truck, was celebrating with friends. At one point, the 21-year-old threw into the air a live firecracker, which landed into a trailing convertible, injuring the driver.

The 21-year-old was later picked by police and charged for possession and use of explosive material. The 59-year-old driver of the pickup, also a woman, was charged for negligent behaviour.

 

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.