It was at 2:00 pm this Sunday when the Fuerza Publica (national police) ruled out a bomb find in the Estadio Ricardo Saprissa, after a thorough review with explosive sniffer dogs.
The announcement came an hour and 20 minutes after the game between Saprissa and Grecia was suspended and and the immediate evacuation of the stadium.
Luego de una hora de revisión, se normaliza situación en el estadio @SaprissaOficial y se descarta presencia de artefacto explosivo. pic.twitter.com/tMPYqDiSkk
— Seguridad Pública (@seguridadcr) September 3, 2017
At the same time, authorities decided to immediately safeguard the Estado Nacional (National Stadium) in La Sabana, host to the Costa Rica – Mexico qualifying game that is to be played on Tuesday, Sept. 6.
The objective is to guarantee security and avoid a recurrence of today’s events in Tibás. Security Minister, Gustavo Mata, assured there will be tight secuirty on Tuesday.
Tuesday’s game is a crucial one for Costa Rica’s national team, for if they beat Mexico they qualify for the FIFA World Cup 2018 in Russia, locking in second place behind Mexico.
At the Saprissa stadium, an anonymous caller alerted Saprissa officials of a possible explosive device in the stadium. The alert came at the 81 minute mark (of the 90-minute game) when referee Keylor Herrera suspended the game and police ordered the immediate evacuation of the stadium.
Saprissa was winning Grecia 6-1.
“Regarding what happened at Ricardo Saprissa (stadium), I can report that a bomb threat was received. The Saprissa activated the security protocols and the stadium was evacuated quickly. We can not be irresponsible to continue a game with a threat that we do not know if it is true or not,” said Jose Pablo Molina, Unafut press officer.
Molina added, “the commissioner of the game is meeting with the teams to reschedule the remainder of the game.”
