Real Madrid's Santiago Bernabeu stadium evacuated after bomb scare

MADRID (AFP) - More than 70,000 people were evacuated from Real Madrid's Santiago Bernabeu stadium following a bomb scare, club sources confirmed.


The alert came after an anonymous caller to the Basque newspaper Gara claimed that the armed separatist movement ETA had planted a bomb in the stadium which was hosting a Primera Liga game between Real Madrid and Basque side Real Sociedad and it would explode at 21:00 local time (20:00 GMT).


Police informed the referee just a minute before the game was due to finish with the score at 1-1. The players returned to the locker rooms and spectators were allowed to exit by the pitch. The stands were cleared within ten minutes at 20:50 (19:50 GMT).


However at 20:45 GMT, police declared the stadium to be safe, saying no explosives had been found despite thorough searches by sniffer dogs.


Players and pitch officials returned to take their showers and Madrid officials were able to come back into their offices.


Real Madrid president Florentino Perez said that they believed that the alert had been a hoax.


"Everything seems to indicate that it was a false alarm," Perez told Spanish television. "The evacuation went smoothly and without problem. People left the stadium quickly without running and at a normal pace.


"It's the positive side of such an unpleasant thing. Things like that shouldn't happen because nobody understands what can be gained from it."


Officials of both clubs will now meet at the Spanish football federation in the Madrid suburbs early Monday to discuss what should happen now, according to private Spanish radio station Cadena Ser.


One option, reported Cadena Ser, was that the match could be completed on Monday however a Real Sociedad official said the club favoured the 1-1 scoreline being made the official result.


Earlier Sunday two makeshift bombs went off outside two businesses in Spain's Basque country, injuring no one but causing material damage.


Regional authorities blamed the explosions on Basque separatist movement ETA, which has claimed responsibility for a string of low-intensity blasts around Spain that left five people slightly injured earlier this month.


On May 1 2002, just before a semi-final Champions League fixture, an ETA bomb exploded in a car beside the stadium, injuring 17 people.


And in November information was discovered by police that the venue was a possible target for islamic extremists. In March, bombs placed by them exploded in trains in the Madrid suburbs killing 191 and injuring 1900.

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I hate these things!