BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) Two Russian fans have been hospitalized with serious injuries after being stabbed following a friendly soccer match between Red Star Belgrade and Lokomotiv Moscow.
Serbian Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic said Sunday police were looking for the knife-wielding perpetrators who attacked a group of Lokomotiv fans in downtown Belgrade late Saturday.
Serbian media reports said the Russian fans were attacked by supporters of Red Star’s rival Partizan Belgrade.
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The match, which Red Star won 2-1, was meant to promote Serbia’s traditional friendship with Russia.
Stefanovic says “nobody should think they could hurt the Serbian-Russian friendship” with such attacks.
Serbia has seen a surge of fan violence inside and outside stadiums. In 2009, a French football fan was fatally beaten in Belgrade.