Vancouver Canucks fans riot after losing Stanley Cup final
(CBS/KIRO/AP) VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Angry, drunken fans ran wild Wednesday night after the Vancouver Canuks' 4-0 loss to Boston in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals, setting cars and garbage cans on fire, smashing windows, showering giant TV screens with beer bottles and dancing atop overturned vehicles.
Vancouver riots after Canucks lose Stanley Cup final
"We have a small number of hooligans on the streets of Vancouver causing problems," Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson said in a statement. "It's absolutely disgraceful and shameful and by no means represents the city of Vancouver...We have had an extraordinary run in the playoff, great celebration. What's happened tonight is despicable."
Police said they had reports of four stabbings, though a spokeswoman for the city would not confirm them.
BCTV reported that at least 58 people were injured. CBC reported that at least 10 remain hospitalized Thursday morning and some may face surgery, reports CBS affiliate KIRO.
Officers from around the region flooded into downtown. It took about four hours before downtown was quiet again.
At the Bay store, a high-end department store, looters were seen grabbing T-shirts and young women were seen leaving the store with MAC cosmetics. The landmark building was filling with smoke as people continued to take anything else they could get their hands on.
The violence started when fans set fire to a stuffed bear decorated to symbolize the Boston Bruins.
Police started using flash-bangs - grenades, which are made to distract and disorient, rather than injure - to break up the mobs.
While some members of the crowd expressed dismay that the police didn't take a more aggressive apparoach to the early vandalism, others said officers were heavy-handed.
"There's people who've been coming through the crowds suffering from tear gas," said 26-year-old Amy Zevick. "I'm seriously disappointed in the city of Vancouver and the country of Canada because it makes me feel the insecurity I read about in other parts of the world. I don't thinks it's OK to loot, but I also don't think its OK to over-police and assume that every person is guilty."
The chaos was reminiscent of a similar scene that erupted in the city in 1994 following the Canucks' Game 7 loss to the New York Rangers, reports the station.
