Chaos at Irish Cup: Teen Arrested for Pyrotechnics

0:00From across Europe, powered by AI, this is Europe News Today. I'm Cory with the story. A 19-year-old man got arrested after chaos erupted before the Irish cup semi-final at Windsor Park in Belfast. Police say a child took a bottle to the head, and nine officers ended up injured when fireworks, flares, and bottles flew through the air on Friday. Evening. This all went down ahead of the match between Cliftonville from North Belfast and Dunganen Swift's, which Swift's won on penalties after a 1-1 draw, Cliftonville fans had marched in an approved parade with about 250 people, but things turned rowdy with heavy pyrotechnics despite police warnings. Superintendent Phanola Dornan from South Belfast called out the provocative acts during the procession, stressing that most fans kept it peaceful and came just to enjoy the game. Still, she slammed the disorder as totally unacceptable, hurting folks and officers at what should have been a safe event.

1:00Two other people got reported for flare fences, and that 19-year-old faces charges like riotous behavior, provocative acts, possessing, fireworks at a match, and more. He's still in custody, cop spotted potential breaches of parade rules, too. Police are now on a full evidence hunt, teaming up with clubs to stamp out this mess and keep the community safe moving forward.