"Terrorists" struck at a soccer game in Madrid, Spain on Sunday, but not the kind Western powers are hunting all over the world.
Saboteurs or "football terrorists" cut electrical cables at Rayo Vallecano's Teresa Rivero Stadium. It caused a partial blackout and prevented the league game against Real Madrid from being played as scheduled, according to Sport 360.
Sunday's game was supposed to kick off at 7:45 p.m. local time, but vandals climbed onto the stadium roof, severed cables and damaged fuse boxes hours before the game. It wiped out half of the floodlights at the stadium.
"We suffered sabotage, an attack," Rayo president Raul Martin Presa said. "We are facing a new kind of terrorism, football terrorism. We have never seen anything like this at a club."
"The 57 cables leading to the lights of one of the stands were cut and the 12 fuse boxes they come from were interfered with," Rayo managing director Luis Yanez said.
Real Madrid fans had already arrived at the stadium and were seated in their section when the lights went out. Rayo fans were locked outside, as the club took security measures. The game was postponed a short time later.
A "whodunit" mystery around the sabotage has engulfed the Spanish capital. Some say it was done in protest of Rayo's decision to charge season ticket holders an extra fee — around €20 ($26) to €25 ($32) — to attend the glamor game.
Some pointed fingers at Rayo's supporter group, Los Bukaneros, but it vehemently denied having any involvement in the plot. The group then suggested that club officials could be behind the sabotage, Football Espana reports.
"We have absolutely nothing to do with this alleged sabotage, it is false and the accusations are made by various people who call themselves journalists and do not hesitate to slander, lie and accuse without any proof," a statement said.
"We do not know who, when and how the sabotage occurred [if indeed it is a sabotage, as we know the likes of which we have in the offices of our organisation, we cannot absolutely rule out any option].
"We have been directly affected, and we must remember that our official position for this game, decided in consensus with other clubs and the most active groups of supporters and known to all, has been to go to it to encourage our Rayo and show our opposition to the leaders of our club, as we did in the 'dias del club' days imposed on us last season.
"We always give absolute freedom to our members to decide individually whether to go to the stadium to protest in the face of the thieves we have for leaders, and whether or not to swallow this new robbery from the directors."
The game was rescheduled to kick off 24 hours later. Technicians fixed the damage, and the floodlights passed tests on Monday afternoon.
Police are already investigating the Rayo mystery. If anyone has information that could help find the culprits, please send it our way so we can have a laugh and possibly tweet about it.
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