ROME (AFP) — Italian prosecutors opened a manslaughter inquiry Monday after a football fan was shot dead by a policeman, sparking nationwide riots, as the government urged football officials to consider suspending the championship.
At least 40 police required hospital treatment after the running battles in several cities which newspapers dubbed the return of the "nightmare" of football-related violence.
Vincenzo Giacobbe, police chief of Arezzo near where Lazio football fan Gabriele Sandri was killed, said the current theory was that he had been a victim of manslaughter but that tougher charges could be laid.
"There's a possibility that the categorisation of the crime ... could change for the worse," Giacobbe told a news conference.
Sandri, a Rome disc jockey, was shot in the neck while sitting in a car at a motorway rest area where there had been fighting between Lazio and Juventus supporters, according to police.
Giacobbe said numerous witnesses had told how the policeman "probably" aimed at the tyres of the car in which Sandri was sitting.
Sandri's family has called the killing murder. The policeman, who has not been identified, said in an interview with the Corriere della Sera daily that it was an accident.
The 31-year-old officer said he accidentally fired the fatal shot as he was running, just seconds after firing a warning round in the air.
"I was not aiming anywhere, I was not pointing at anyone," the officer said.
"The first shot I fired in the air and the second went off as I was running. What a fool. Now I know what happened, I am devastated. Now I have destroyed two families, that of this boy and mine," he added.
Interior Minister Giuliano Amato called the incident a "tragic error" and said the "exact dynamic of the facts" was still under investigation.
Sports Minister Giovanna Melandri urged football authorities meeting later Monday to take tough action, "even possibly suspending the championship over the next few weeks."
Speaking after an emergency meeting of government officials and football authorities, Melandri said: "Everyone feels the need for strong and meaningful decisions from the world of football."
The meeting at the interior ministry was attended by the heads of the Italian Football Federation, the League of Professional Clubs and the National Olympic Committee.
"Football values were doubly flouted, because a young fan is dead and because violence broke out," Melandri told reporters.
Italian authorities had ordered heightened security at football matches back in February, after a policeman was killed in clashes with supporters in Sicily.
The furious reaction to Sunday's shooting saw fans across Italy turn on police targets. Three championship matches had to be called off.
Hundreds of fans, many masked and carrying batons, attacked a Rome police barracks, burning a bus and other vehicles.
Another crowd looted the headquarters of the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI) before police staged a baton charge and fired tear gas to restore order. Four people were arrested.
One policeman was seriously injured after being struck with an iron bar, according to the ANSA news agency.
In Bergamo, Atalanta fans clashed with police before their game against AC Milan. The game lasted only seven minutes before the referee halted play.
Hardcore Atalanta fans charged and smashed a glass barricade intended to keep supporters off the pitch, ignoring players who pleaded for calm.
In Milan, some 400 fans threw stones at the police headquarters, while outside the San Siro stadium Lazio and Inter Milan supporters chanted anti-police slogans.
Before the Siena-Livorno game and at other stadiums, supporters shouted "murderers" at police and security officers.
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