SAO PAULO
Chile football fans broke into Rio's Maracanã stadium Wednesday, ahead of their country's much-anticipated World Cup clash against the tournament's reigning champions, Spain.
Images published on social media by journalists at the scene showed how a group of over 100 ticketless Chilean football fans broke through a stadium entrance and stormed the media center around an hour before the 4 p.m. kick-off.
Around 90 of the fans have since been detained, local media reported, and images from inside the media center showed World Cup security surrounding around 20 red-shirted fans.
Reporters had initially tweeted that the media center walls had collapsed, but later gave updates to describe the scene of "chaos" caused by a stampede of Chilean fans, with tables upturned, glass doors smashed and even ceiling panels coming loose.
British sports writer Jack Lang, who was in the media center, told the Anadolu Agency that the scene was chaotic.
"People were running around everywhere. There was a big creak and one of the walls came down on top of desks and computers, followed by another wall. Then someone said Chile fans had broken in."
Local media say that although most were detained and led from the stadium by security and military police, a number managed to reach the stadium pitch through an entrance by one of the goals.
Some of these fans mixed in with paying fans and it is unclear whether stadium security managed to identify and remove all the fans who broke in without tickets.
Reports from outside the stadium say a standoff between fans and police had gone on for some time, but some of the Chileans managed to cause a diversion by insisting medical attention was required by someone.
Rio fire service said at least five people were injured in the incident, including a woman with a broken arm, and were all receiving medical attention, Globo News reported.
FIFA's official Local Organizing Committee was expected to make an official statement later.
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