A referee was shot dead midway through a football match in Ecuador after gunmen stormed the pitch and opened fire.
Javier Ortega, 48, was killed while officiating a neighborhood amateur match in front of horrified players and fans within the town of Pasaje within the coastal province of El Oro on Sunday.
Witnesses reported multiple gunmen approached the referee in the course of the match, opening fire before fleeing the scene. Local outlet LA100 reports players and spectators ran for canopy because the violence erupted.
Emergency services attended the scene but Orteta was declared dead with local authorities closing off the world. The match was immediately abandoned with the organising club suspending matches until further notice.
Ortega was well-known local figure, commonly refereeing matches in the world. His death has prompted easy outcry with locals paying tribute with candles lit in his memory within the neighborhood while also demanding a right away investigation.
A police spokesperson said officers are ‘currently reviewing cell phone footage,’ The Sun report.
‘[We are] interviewing witnesses to discover the perpetrators,’ the statement said.
‘It is a cold-blooded crime committed in an area meant for community and sport.’
The police investigation is ongoing.
In December last 12 months, former Ecuador international Mario Pineida was shot dead in town of Guayaquil.
The 33-year-old, who won nine caps for his country, was gunned down by two people on motorbikes while standing outside a store along with his mother.
Two months earlier, Maicol Valencia and Leandro Yépez, each players of second division team Exapromo Costa, and Jonathan González, of twenty-two de Junio died from gunshot wounds.
In November, a 16-year-old footballer of Independiente del Valle died from a stray bullet, also in Guayaquil.