Referee Martin Atkinson brought today’s Euro 2016 qualifier between Serbia and Albania to a halt, after a drone entered the pitch carrying an Albanian flag towards the end of the first half. Tensions were already high—and the match already paused—following flares being thrown onto the field of play, and the drone’s appearance brought the game to a boiling point.
Serbia’s Stefan Mitrovic grabbed the flag after it did a few laps around the stadium, which brought on a chaotic period of pushing and shoving between the two sides. The Albanian national team then left the field after having garbage thrown at them by Serbian supporters, only to be followed by the home side. In case you were wondering, Albanian supporters were not allowed to attend the match amidst security fears.
It’s being reported that the match has now officially been abandoned. We’ll provide further updates as they become available.
Here are a few additional tweets of the chaotic scenes in Belgrade:
