Post-match car accident mars Tunisia football celebrations

Tunis (AFP) – At least four people were injured when a drunk driver ploughed into a crowd celebrating the crowning of Tunisian football club Esperance as champions of Africa, the interior ministry said Saturday.

Crowds piled into streets across Tunisia on Friday night after Esperance defeated Al Ahly of Egypt 3-0 in Tunis to overcome a 1-3 deficit from the first leg and win a third CAF Champions League title. 

After a tense build-up and with police on high alert, the match itself passed without incident in the 60,000-seat Olympic stadium of the capital’s Rades suburb.

But in the eastern city of Nabeul, a car crashed into a crowd, with a young girl left in serious condition among the four injured, interior ministry spokesman Sofiene Zaag said, marring the celebrations.

“The driver, who was arrested, was in an advanced stage of drunkenness and had been wanted for a drugs conviction,” he said.

Tunisian police deployed more than 6,000 officers as well as drones and canine units for Friday’s final, with metal detectors installed for the first time at all gates into the ground.