SARAJEVO: Thirty-five people, including seven policemen, were injured in inter-ethnic scuffles between Bosnian Serb and Muslim football fans, police and hospital sources said Thursday.
A police source added that 62 football supporters had been detained.
Police said about a hundred, mostly Muslim, fans of Zeljeznicar Sarajevo and Serb supporters of Borac Banja Luka, clashed in the central Bosnian town of Donji Vakuf Wednesday while on their way to respective team matches.
“We have hospitalized 35 injured, three of them seriously who were later transferred to Sarajevo,” doctor Sifet Mrkonja at a local hospital said.
“Some 120 fans took part in this incident in which seven policemen were also injured,” local police official Sulejman Tukar said.
Bosnia is still deeply divided along ethnic lines although its 1992-1995 war between its Croats, Muslims and Serbs ended more than 17 years ago.
In recent months, a number of inter-ethnic incidents between football fans has been registered in Bosnia.
Also on Wednesday, a match between Velez Mostar and Siroki Brijeg was temporarily stopped due to nationalist chants by Muslim Velez fans.
Earlier this month, a match in Sarajevo was also halted as football fans refused to put away a banner that glorified Muslim forces fighting during the war in which more than 100,000 people were killed.
Dozens hurt in inter-ethnic football scuffles in Bosnia
