Angry Vancouver fans set cars ablaze, fling bottles after Stanley Cup loss

Furious hockey fans set fire to cars and garbage cans, tossed beer bottles at giant TV screens and ran rampant through downtown Vancouver streets Wednesday after the Canucks lost 4-0 to the Boston Bruins in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final.

Eyewitnesses reported seeing at least two parked cars burning in the streets, which were strewn with trash and filled with acrid smoke in the moments immediately following the game at Vancouver’s Rogers Arena.

Witnesses reported seeing flames shoot nearly 10 metres into the air as bystanders tossed firecrackers, setting off intermittent barrages of staccato explosions.

Patrick Fleming, 15, from Richmond, B.C., said a small group of fans took out their anger on nearby cars in the game’s dying moments, flipping over two vehicles and setting one on fire.

Two other upturned vehicles were visible nearby as orange flames erupted from an exploding car, prompting several bystanders to duck down in alarm. Fans who were trying simply to get out of the danger zone found their visibility reduced to zero by the thick black smoke.

Som Gosh, 16, said police blocked off the area and detained a number of people, but it did little to quell the violence.

“I think it was a few people … Everybody else is watching, some are cheering,” Gosh said.

As he spoke, another fire erupted nearby.

Some members of the crowd could be seen trying to hold others back as the rampage continued. Many tried to flee, panicked. Others posed for pictures as rioting broke out around them. Most wanted no part of the violence and headed in the opposite direction.

A long line of police, truncheons at the ready, tried to hold the surging crowd back from the blazing cars.

Though the outcome of the game was no longer in doubt midway through the third period, a hail of beer bottles rained down on giant outdoor television screens as soon as the final buzzer sounded, touching off a fearsome riot.

The scene was vividly similar to one in 1994, when a Game 7 loss to the New York Rangers prompted another stampede of liquor-fuelled mayhem in the downtown core.

This time, police tried to nip the violence in the bud by closing liquor and beer stores early, but it appeared to have no effect.

Pandemonium reigned in the streets as some fans chanted obscenities about the winning team, leaping over bonfires that raged in the street as riot police moved in to try to restore order.

Fire trucks quickly flooded into the downtown area to try and squelch the flames.

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