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Thousands of fans who had camped outside Bangalore's M Chinnaswamy Stadium to buy just 8,000 tickets for Sunday's World Cup showdown between India and England were lathi-charged by police on Thursday, local media reported.
Police were seen hitting fans with sticks as chaos broke out among those who had been waiting outside the arena since Wednesday to buy tickets from the box office, CNN-IBN reported.
Media reported fans were angered by the shortage of tickets available for purchase at the venue, which was given hosting rights for the highly-anticipated Group B match after the International Cricket Council (ICC) was with unhappy with the preparations at the 100,000-seater Eden Gardens in Kolkata.
Ticket sales for the Feb. 19-April 2 tournament have proven to be a major headache for organisers, who are unable to meet demand for the high-profile matches, especially those featuring India as well as the April 2 final in Mumbai.
On Monday, the official online ticket agency that had been expected to sell just 1,000 tickets for the final in Mumbai crashed after 10 million fans tried to log on in just 20 minutes.
