{"id":258097,"date":"2026-08-16T10:25:41","date_gmt":"2026-08-16T10:25:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/16\/european-championships-security-scare-keeps-fans-and-athletes-stuck-at-stadium\/"},"modified":"2026-08-16T10:25:41","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T10:25:41","slug":"european-championships-security-scare-keeps-fans-and-athletes-stuck-at-stadium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/16\/european-championships-security-scare-keeps-fans-and-athletes-stuck-at-stadium\/","title":{"rendered":"European Championships security scare keeps fans and athletes stuck at stadium"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Dozens of athletes, including Britain\u2019s Amy Hunt, and thousands of spectators were caught up in a massive security operation involving armed police at the European Athletics Championships<\/a> on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

Buses were not allowed to leave the Alexander Stadium for well over an hour as police conducted searches, and athletes, officials and fans were kept in the dark as to what was going on.<\/p>\n

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Athletes, many of whom are competing again on Sunday evening, started queueing for official buses at 10.15pm but did not arrive back at their team hotels in the city centre until 12.30am. \u201cFortunately they kept the kitchens open for the athletes,\u201d one team official said.<\/p>\n

The West Midlands police said a man in his 30s was \u201carrested on suspicion of fraud\u201d and remains in custody for questioning. The first indication that anything was wrong came during Saturday night\u2019s action when stadium announcers said that the six medal ceremonies would be postponed.<\/p>\n

After the capacity 23,000 crowd had witnessed both British 4x100m relay teams claim gold<\/a>, thousands of fans were then unable to get on buses to leave the venue \u2013 which is about five miles from the centre of Birmingham \u2013 while athletes, coaches and officials were told to return to the high performance centre at the Alexander Stadium to stay warm.<\/p>\n

Joanne Ray and her husband, Ian, told the Guardian that she had started queuing for the buses at 9.50pm but didn\u2019t get on one until 11.15pm. \u201cThere were mothers with babies strapped in carriers, disabled people in electric wheelchairs,\u201d she said. \u201cThey were absolutely frozen. And we were given no information.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>Fans in Birmingham are kept waiting after leaving the Alexander Stadium.<\/span> Photograph: Sean Ingle\/The Guardian<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A statement on the Birmingham<\/a> 2026 social media account, posted on X at 11.03pm on Saturday, said: \u201cWe apologise for the significant delays in leaving the Alexander Stadium venue this evening. Buses and coaches will start to arrive and departures will begin to gradually take place.\u201d<\/p>\n

A further statement later clarified that a man had been arrested. \u201cChampionship transport was suspended until the necessary security measures had been carried out whilst West Midlands Police arrested a man in his thirties on suspicion of fraud,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe safety and wellbeing of our spectators, athletes, workforce and the wider Championships family will always be our first priority.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe recognise that the delays presented challenges for those affected and would like to thank everyone for their patience, understanding and cooperation throughout the evening.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hunt is back in the stadium on Sunday evening, where she will aim for an unprecedented quadruple of gold medals at a single European Athletics<\/a> Championships in the mixed 4x100m relays.<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>Alisa Vainio powers to victory in the marathon.<\/span> Photograph: Adam Vaughan\/EPA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On Sunday morning, Finland\u2019s Alisa Vainio won gold in the women\u2019s marathon in a championship record 2hrs 22.26min, an impressive time particularly on such a hilly course, with Britain\u2019s Abbie Donnelly taking bronze in 2:27.33.<\/p>\n

Germany\u2019s Amanal Petros won gold in the men\u2019s event, setting a new championship record of 2:09:11 after a solo breakaway. He then jogged to the finish ahead of Italy\u2019s Pietro Riva, who finished seven seconds back, with Israel\u2019s Gashau Ayale just behind in third.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dozens of athletes, including Britain\u2019s Amy Hunt, and thousands of spectators were caught up in a massive security operation involving armed police at the European Athletics Championships on Saturday night. Buses were not allowed to leave the Alexander Stadium for well over an hour as police conducted searches, and athletes, officials and fans were kept […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":258098,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6802],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-258097","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-athetics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258097\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}