A Belgian stadium, Stade du Pays de Charleroi, was evacuated during Sunday’s soccer match between Sporting Charleroi and Standard Liege after remote-controlled flares and smoke bombs were found under the seats.
According to The Athletic, the devices were found under seats in the away team supporters' section of the 15,000-seat stadium. A fan who thought his seat wasn’t secured properly discovered a total of 14 devices.
Stadium officials called in specialty teams including bomb disposal units and explosive detection dogs to evaluate the scene. These teams did succeed in neutralizing the flares and smoke bombs. Once the scene was stabilized, the match did continue as scheduled.
First responders confirmed that had the pyrotechnics been set off, they would have caused serious burns and injuries to the fans seated in that section.
Sporting Charleroi released a statement saying, “Sporting Charleroi deplores and condemns in the strongest possible terms the unacceptable behavior of certain individuals who attempted to booby-trap seats in the away stand using smoke bombs designed to be triggered remotely. Such acts are completely unacceptable and have absolutely no place in our stadium. They also run counter to the values defended by Sporting Charleroi.”
The perpetrators have not been identified, and an investigation is ongoing to find the people responsible. In Belgium, those responsible for this crime face a sentence of attempted arson of a building in which people were present. That crime carries a prison sentence of one to 15 years.
The entire incident has left fans questioning the stadium’s security measures. One Dutch and Belgium soccer blog called out the potential fines and other league-based penalties that the Charleroi club could face for allowing this to happen. Both Sporting Charleroi and Standard Liege are members of the Jupiler Pro League, one of the most competitive and highly skilled soccer leagues in the region.
