Chaotic Fans for Beckham in Shanghai

The football superstar's planned visit later in the day to Tonju University would be a little more eventful. But the news that i read didn't expect that it to be quite so dramatic.

Beckham was touring a faculty building, but a sizable crowd of mostly students had already gathered outside. They were held back by a flimsy police line at the end of the road. I suspected there was no way the police could keep the crowd from getting closer. Sure enough, they didn't. Beckham was supposed to have a kickabout with some under-15 footballers from a local Shanghai club youth team. The pitch was about 50 metres from the faculty building, but as soon as fans saw his black Bentley they stormed the meager police line and surrounded his car. The police were not happy.

After that, chaos ensued.

Here was one of the world’s most famous people and suddenly his car is completely surrounded by fans. Somehow, Beckham’s handlers had to get him out and onto the football pitch. This is the ludicrous bit. They pull up to a gate in the tall metal fence, open it and Beckham steps out. He is ushered onto the pitch. The fans, of course, follow.

I could see people pushed up against the fence with nowhere go. Suddenly, as the crowd surged, people were falling to the ground, but others kept coming and trampled over them. I could see people were in distress, people squashed like that don’t last long. I saw a policewoman who obviously took the full weight of the crowd and was lying face down. When they picked her up there was a pool of blood coming out of her nose and mouth. I hope she's OK. The rest of the planned events were cancelled, of course. This could have turned out a lot worse but thankfully it didn't. With a bit more anticipation, it wouldn't have happened at all.