Watch: Car ploughs into football fans in Barcelona
Thirteen people were injured after a car slammed into a massed crowd of football fans near a stadium in Barcelona on Thursday night.
The incident occurred minutes before the start of the La Liga match between Espanyol and FC Barcelona, a city derby played at the former's RCDE Stadium in the Cornellá area of Barcelona.
Eye witnesses told local media that at around 8.30pm a white Peugeot, whose driver found themselves in an area meant to be closed off to traffic due to the presence of thousands of football fans, drove into a crowd.
The driver is reported to be a woman, who has been arrested.
According to witnesses, some fans remonstrated against the presence of a car in the prohibited area, at which point the driver is reported to have lost control of the vehicle and hit several fans as she drove forward and in reverse in an attempt to get free of the crowd.
Some of those hit were reportedly dragged along for several metres.
No one reported to be in a life-threatening condition
Anxious moments followed the incident during which officers from the Catalan Mossos d'Esquadra police force attended to injured individuals and sought to calm the situation amid fears that that it had been a deliberate act of ramming.
Ten ambulances were dispatched to the scene and treated the injured on the spot.
According to the initial statement from the security forces, nine people suffered minor injuries, with four suffering more serious injuries.
In a statement posted on X by the Mossos police force, five people were still being treated two hours after the incident, but none were reported to be in a life-threatening condition.
Police have opened an investigation to determine what happened, although in their initial assessment they classified the incident it as an accident.
Police sources told the La Vanguardia newspaper that the driver of the vehicle, reported to be a woman of between 45 and 55 years of age, had no criminal record. She faces probable charges of reckless driving and causing injury.
The driver was also treated by medical services for shock.
Inside Espanyol's stadium, play was briefly suspended after an announcement was made seven minutes into the match regarding the incident. But the referee, after consulting with the stadium manager, decided that the match would continue.
Some Espanyol fans protested that the match should be suspended.
Barcelona won the match 2-0, meaning they are this season's La Liga champions, ahead of rivals Real Madrid in second place.
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