Ambulance drivers behind injuries at İzmir derby

İZMİR

Police found out that two ambulance drivers had brought the signal flare into the stadium that caused a man and two children to be injured in a fight between two İzmir football clubs’ fans.

After signal flares were thrown at Göztepe fans from the Altay stands and a man was badly injured, two ambulances entered the pitch and the game had to be stopped.

In the meantime, a Göztepe fan went down to the pitch and took the corner post and attacked Altay’s goalkeeper, Ozan Evrim Özenç.

“The flares were left in the stadium’s restroom by the drivers of the private ambulance company on duty and were distributed to the fans from there,” the governor’s office said in a statement.

The drivers, identified only by the initials A.G. and H.K., three fans, who threw the signal flare at Göztepe fans, and a total of 21 people related to the incident were arrested and necessary judicial proceedings were initiated against them, according to the statement.

The fight forced players and referees to go into the locker room. Mehmet Çakır, the fan who had severe damage to his jaw and teeth and burns on his left side, was taken into surgery.

Özenç found himself on the ground after a fan attacked him with a corner post, and suffered a four-centimeter gash on his head.

There was also tension in the locker room corridors while waiting for the referee’s decision. Police teams intervened in the chaos between the football players and managers of the two teams.

Altay’s players and fans were kept waiting in the stadium for a while after the match was canceled by the referee.

“It was an incident that never befits sportsmanship... Those who did this will be punished with the decision to be taken within the Turkish legal system,” Governor Yavuz Selim Köşger said.

After Altay’s players left the stadium in police vans, the black-and-white side’s fans left the stadium in buses under supervision after waiting for about seven hours.