Fire scare for Indian U-23 football team in Dhaka

Dhaka, March 30

The Indian Under-23 football team, here for the AFC Championship Qualifiers, survived a fire scare today when smoke spewed out from the rear of the team bus from a training session. The 30-member Indian contingent, including national senior team coach Stephen Constantine, reacted in panic and immediately vacated the bus. They were left stranded on the streets for some time and were eventually taken to the team hotel by the police escort vehicles in turns.

They were on their way back to the hotel from a morning session when a burning smell hit everyone inside the bus and emission of smoke was spotted from the cylinders at the rear. “Everyone was caught in a state of shock for a while. Later the organisers apologised for the incident. The players and the support staff have reached the hotel safely and all of them are fine,” said Indian team media officer Nilanjan Datta. “We are not making any official complaint on this incident,” he added.

“It was scary. For a moment we were flummoxed. We just could not understand what to do,” said Under-23 head coach Savio Medeira. “I need to thank the local police in Bangladesh for their timely support and cooperation without which we could have ended up worse,” he added. 

India take on hosts Bangladesh in their league encounter tomorrow. — PTI