Messi tour: Min visibility leads to max chaos in Kolkata venue

Fans who failed to get a glimpse of their hero, Argentine football superstar Lionel Messi, as their view was blocked by VIPs vandalised parts of Kolkata's Salt Lake Stadium on Saturday, hurling seats, bottles and storming onto the field, leading to the arrest of the event's organiser and triggering a public apology from chief minister Mamata Banerjee.

- Dhiman Sarkar and Joydeep Thakur

The Argentine World Cup-winning captain's much-anticipated visit to Kolkata, as part of the "GOAT [greatest of all time] tour", lasted just 22 minutes. The tour, which comprises a series of promotional events covering Kolkata, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Delhi, began with Messi unveiling of a 70ft (21m) statue of himself in Kolkata virtually due to security concerns. He later reached the Salt Lake Stadium, where thousands of fans had been waiting since around 4 am.

The first signs of trouble came around 15 minutes after Messi and his Inter Miami teammates, Luis Suárez and Rodrigo de Paul, arrived at the Salt Lake Stadium around 11.30am in a white SUV. As fans' view of Messi remained blocked, chants of "we want to see Messi" reverberated around the stands, which had approximately over 50,000 people, most of whom had purchased tickets priced between ₹4,500 and ₹18,000.