There were horrific scenes at a football match in Brazil as the game was hit by crowd trouble, which led to flares and even gunshots being fired towards the stands.
The exact reasoning behind the incident remains unclear, but it is not the first time football in the country has led to extreme violence.
Shots fired at a football match in Brazil
The incident
At an unnamed match in Brazil, a set of fans could be seen climbing the fence separating the crowd and the pitch, attempting to break it down as they did so. Flares then began to be set off from the massive crowd of people, before, out of nowhere, gunshots were fired, appearing to be aimed towards the crowd from a building adjacent to the pitch.
Making this story even more bizarre, is the fact that the pitch in question doesn't appear to be located within a stadium, but instead looks more like a five-a-side pitch in the middle of a town.
Gunshots and Brazilian football
Rather shockingly, this is not the first time violence in Brazilian football has led to guns being brandished at a match.
There is a long list of such events, so much so that it is difficult to pick out just a few key instances. For example, in 2015, in response to aggression from one of the teams involved in the match, referee Gabriel Murta himself actually pulled a gun out of his pocket. And we think the referees in the Premier League are egotistical, eh?
More recently, in 2021 during a Brazilian Uner 20 match, players were forced to take cover inside the stadium after a burst of gunshots were fired. It was another terrifying moment, although it was eventually confirmed that the shots were fired just outside the stadium during a police operation.
Then in 2022, a Brazilian football fan was shot and killed in the city of Belo Horizonte, merely hours before a game between two fierce rivals was set to kick-off.
Guns have clearly become somewhat of an epidemic in Brazilian football, witht their presence becoming an all-too-common sight at matches.