Fans killed in stadium roof collapse

Several soccer fans were killed and hundreds more were injured yesterday when part of the roof of a stadium grandstand caved in during a game.

Angry fans clashed with police trying to make their way into the Mottaqi Stadium , where the accident occurred, said Ali Ansarian, a player with Persepolis, Iran’s most popular soccer team.

He said fans had started fires on the field.

‘‘We are trapped in the locker room,’’ Ansarian said.

‘‘There is such a thick crowd outside that we can’t force open the door to the locker room. Through a small window, I can see fighting outside between fans and the police,’’ he added.

Ansarian said he had seen at least 30 people dead. More than 20,000 fans were packed into the stadium in the city of Sari, 155 miles northeast of Tehran.

State-run Tehran television showed fans wielding metal poles locked in battle with anti-riot forces trying to control the crowds at the stadium, described as ‘‘old and overcrowded’’.

One wall of the stadium had been completely torn down. Iron fences separating the grandstand from the field had been rooted out. The field was packed with fans and police forces.

‘‘The security forces are trying to direct the people out of the stadium,’’ said Tehran television.

The official Islamic Republic News Agency said that ‘‘hundreds’’ of fans had been injured and ‘‘several’’ killed. It did not give an exact number of casualties.

A telephone operator at the Bu Ali Hospital in Sari said injured fans were packed into hallways and even a courtyard.

Many of the injuries were ‘‘critical’’.

Officials and witnesses at the stadium confirmed that several people had been killed.

One of the officials, reached by telephone at the scene, said that the stadium was old and so overcrowded that aid workers could not quickly reach some of the injured.

A city resident said that ambulances were racing through the streets.

Tehran television, which was showing the game live, suddenly cut off transmission after the accident.

Persepolis was playing another local team, Shemooshak of Nowshahr, when the accident happened during the second half.