Officials had to suspend the 2016 Euro qualifier game between Serbia and Albania after a drone flew a flag over the field.
Serbia and Albania were playing in a Euro 2016 qualifier on Tuesday when some outside distractions interfered in the game. An Albanian flag was flown over the pitch by a drone prompting a stop on the play.
Play stopped as a drone flies right above the pitch, dangling an Albanian flag right above it! This is incredible. Crowd going mad.
— Nick Ames (@NickAmes82) October 14, 2014
At one point Serbia’s Stefan Mitrovic jumped up and grabbed the flag, leading to Albanian playeurs confronting and shoving him. Serbia and Albania are separated by the disputed territory of Kosovo, so share a tense history.
It got even worse as Sebrian fans ran onto the pitch and pelted Albanian players, causing them to flea the field.
Mitrovic, jumps, grabs the flag as it falls – and all hell has now broken lose here. Players and officials on both sides fighting.
— Nick Ames (@NickAmes82) October 14, 2014
This is disgraceful. Albanians have now fled the pitch, pelted by objects. Serbians following. Never seen anything like this.
— Nick Ames (@NickAmes82) October 14, 2014
Think it was Mavraj who ran over to Mitrovic when he grabbed the flag and barged him over. After that: chaos.
— Nick Ames (@NickAmes82) October 14, 2014
The pitch is now surrounded by more police when I have ever seen. There's relative calm. But the damage is long since done. Now we wait.
— Nick Ames (@NickAmes82) October 14, 2014
The game was suspended roughly an hour before the match was abandoned, as confirmed by UEFA.
Another video, via ESPN:
Getty Images got an awesome picture of Serbian defender Stefan Mitrovic trying to grab the flag.
[UPDATE:] Here is video of some of the disturbing violence and scary scene.
An absolutely extraordinary video of the violence at Serbia v Albania: https://t.co/EVizge9M6G (via @AndiKasmi). What will Uefa do?
— Marcus Christenson (@m_christenson) October 14, 2014
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