Russia: Taxi crashes into crowd of World Cup fans
(Baonghean.vn) - Right after the Argentina - Iceland match ended in the 2018 World Cup, a yellow taxi drove onto the sidewalk where many World Cup fans were taking pictures, about 200 meters from Red Square, injuring 8 people.
Most of those injured were reportedly fans of the Mexican national team.
 |
| Accident scene. Photo: Twitter |
After the collision, the taxi driver tried to escape from the scene, but was chased and captured by the crowd. Immediately after the incident, an ambulance arrived, and 8 injured fans were immediately taken to the hospital, including a woman who was seriously injured.
The taxi driver, identified as a 28-year-old man from Kyrgyzstan, said he did not intentionally crash into the crowd because he was too tired after working continuously for two days transporting World Cup fans.
"The preliminary cause of the accident is that the driver lost control of the vehicle, could not control the speed, and mistakenly stepped on the gas pedal. Currently, the police are opening a criminal investigation" - an official statement on the Moscow government's website.
The Mexico national team will have its first match, facing Germany at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow.
As the host country of the 2018 World Cup, ensuring security for the world's classic football matches is a big challenge for the Russian government and security forces. At least 600,000 foreign tourists are expected to come to Russia to watch the event.
To ensure World Cup security, Russia has created unprecedented “shields”. The cameras are equipped with state-of-the-art facial recognition technology, allowing people in video to be compared with police databases in just a few seconds.
This elite system is installed in all 11 cities hosting the 2018 World Cup. Along with that, elite special forces are carefully trained to deal with terrorist attack scenarios during the event.