Fire rages outside Champions League final stadium as smoke engulfs Istanbul

A building was engulfed in flames before the Champions League final between Manchester City and Inter Milan at the Ataturk Stadium in Istanbul, with smoke being seen from the ground

Posted Sunday, June 11, 2023 by Dailystar.co.uk

Fire rages outside Champions League final stadium as smoke engulfs Istanbul
A burning building was seen outside of the Ataturk Stadium before the Champions League final

A huge fire has been seen raging outside of the Ataturk Stadium ahead of the Champions League final.

Terrifying scenes emerged in Turkey two hours before Manchester City and Inter Milan kicked-off in their blockbuster clash.

Various journalists and fans attending the Champions League final shared photos and videos of huge smoke blowing outside the ground.

The blaze appeared to be as a result of a burning building in close proximity to the stadium.

Reporter Miguel Delaney shared a photo of the smoke visible from the stadium press box on his Twitter, before saying he had seen several fire engines making their way to the scene earlier.

New York Times writer Rory Smith reported the fire stemmed from a nearby factory, claiming that firefighters arrived to tackle it two hours earlier.

Fire engines rushed to deal with a burning building in Istanbul

The smoke could be seen behind BT Sport's punditry team inside the ground too

The highly-anticipated final is scheduled to kick-off at 8pm UK time - or 10pm local time in Istanbul.

Istanbul famously held the 2005 Champions League final, which saw Liverpool mount an iconic comeback from 3-0 down against AC Milan to claim the trophy.

That game was held at the Olympic Stadium, with the 75,000 capacity Ataturk only becoming a major player since its 2020 renovation.

Yet despite all of the preparation ahead of the event, things went far from smoothly from the travelling City and Inter supporters on Saturday.

The smoke was clear to see going across the top of the ground

Manchester City fans are hoping to see their side win a historic Treble

The venue is situated over an hour away from Istanbul city centre, where fans were told to congregate a staggering nine hours before kick-off by UEFA.

Hundreds of shuttle buses were scheduled to run alongside the metro to help supporters travel. But reports later stated many fans had run into trouble, with two-hour queues being estimated for buses from the city centre.

The wait for buses as well as the journey time meant fans would have needed to be in the queue by around 4:30pm BST to make it to the stadium with time to spare before the 8pm BST kick off.