MOSCOW (AP) -- At least one man was killed when Russian soccer fans went on a rampage after watching their national team lose to Japan in the World Cup on Sunday.
An Associated Press photographer saw a mutilated corpse lying on the street during the chaos, which erupted just outside the Kremlin and lasted more than an hour. At least seven cars could be seen burning and more than a dozen were overturned.
Thousands of fans ran through the streets chanting ``Forward, Russia!'' and other soccer slogans. They broke shop windows, jumped up and down on cars and fought among themselves, throwing empty beer bottles at each other. Some of them were wrapped in the Russian tricolor.
Plumes of smokes rose from several cars near the national parliament building and from the square in front of the Bolshoi Theater.
The Interfax news agency said one man was knifed to death and more than 20 people, including one policeman, injured in the riots. A duty officer at the Moscow police department refused to confirm the information.
Interfax also reported, citing police sources, that five exchange students from Japan were beaten on a nearby street.
The fans, mostly teen-aged boys and young men, had been watching the Russia-Japan match on a big screen set up on Manezh Square next to the Kremlin. Japan defeated Russia 1-0.
The riots erupted after Japan scored its goal, but before the game ended. Few police officers were nearby at the time, and they did not arrive until almost an hour later, when most of the aggressive fans had left the area.
Firefighters arrived first, and the rioters attacked their trucks. Photographers and cameramen also were beaten. Interfax reported an ambulance was set on fire and a doctor attacked.
Once police arrived, some fans tried to help them detain the instigators of the riots by overpowering the hooligans and leading them to the police.
Aggressive Russian soccer fans, who often sport shaved heads, have in the past gone on rampages in Moscow, but never to such an extent.
There have been several serious racially motivated attacks by skinheads on ethnic minorities in Moscow recently. These people are bound to be avid supporters of the Russian football team. We have already seen this phenomenon over many years in England.
The die hard English football hooligans are often members of the National Front or Combat 18. They go along to England's football matches overseas to incite violence against the foreign supporters and the host nation. Unfortunately, any popular game of the common people, played on an international stage, is prone to hijack by racist/fascist elements.