Manchester United Premier League club mourns Nigerian fans who died in Calabar

The fans died when a tension cable to fall into the viewing centre where they were watching a Manchester United game.

 

Manchester United have joined in the mourning of 30 fans who lost their lives in Calabar while watching their Europa League 2-1 win over Anderlecht on Thursday, April 20.

According to several reports, about 30 fans died while watching Manchester United’s second leg quarter-final clash against Anderlecht on Thursday.

The fans died when a transformer close to the viewing centre where they were watching the game exploded, causing a tension cable to fall into the viewing centre.

 

Manchester United via their official Twitter account sent out a condolence message to those who were affected by the tragedy.

“Our thoughts go out to the United fans, their friends and families affected by the tragedy in Calabar, Nigeria, yesterday,” the Manchester United statement reads on Twitter. 

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Our thoughts go out to the United fans, their friends and families affected by the tragedy in Calabar, Nigeria, yesterday.

                                                                                            9:57 AM - 21 Apr 2017  ☺13,706 Retweets ☺10,437 likes

There are still disparities in several reports about the number of people that died in the tragedy.

While local media have reported that 30 fans died, the Cross River state police spokeswoman Irene Ugbo told AFP that only seven were killed in the incident. 

"We received a report of the incident around 10:00 pm and on getting there were able to recover the bodies of seven people who had been electrocuted when a high tension cable fell on them," Ugbo told AFP.

"Eleven other fans who were injured were rushed to the hospital, with one in a critical condition," she said.

Manchester United beat Anderlecht in the game courtesy of goals from Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Marcus Rashford to progress to the Europa League semifinals.