Bomb scare halts Madrid match

Real Madrid’s home Primera Liga match with Real Sociedad was abandoned with five minutes to go following a bomb alert at the Santiago Bernabeu.

The match was level at 1-1 when the teams left the pitch and the stadium was evacuated in the 88th minute of the game.

Sociedad striker Nihat Kahveci scored a second-half equaliser to cancel out Ronaldo’s 41st-minute opener for Madrid.

News reports indicated that the Basque newspaper Gara had received a telephone call saying that a bomb had been placed in the stadium aimed to explode at 21.00

Referee Lizondo Cortes halted play and pointed the teams toward the tunnel as the stadium's loudspeakers appealed for an orderly evacuation of the stadium by fans.

Television images showed fans shouting in disapproval while others walked calmly away, some using the field of play as an escape route.

The teams were tying 1-1 when the match was abandoned.

The Basque separatist group ETA has issued similar warnings to Gara before a series of small explosions in Spanish cities in recent days.

Media reports later said a backpack had been found in the north stand of the Bernabeu, but that it had been left there by a fan who had departed in a hurry.

ETA has targeted the stadium in the past.

On May 1, 2002, when Madrid was due to play FC Barcelona in a Champions League semi-final, a car bomb exploded in the streets outside the stadium and 17 people were lightly injured.