More Than 200 People Are Injured as Mexicans Celebrate 2-0 Victory

More than 200 people were injured and 148 arrested in the giant street festival that followed Mexico’s 2-0 World Cup soccer victory Sunday over Bulgaria, a city police spokesman said Monday.

Estimates of the number of people who turned out for the street carnivals after the victory ranged from 1-1.5 million.

The police spokesman said 200 people were treated for minor injuries and 30 others required hospitalization.

A front-page headline in the Excelsior, a Mexico City newspaper, said two fans were killed. But its account of one of the deaths said only that Gustavo Perez Gonzalez, 29, was killed by shots fired from a passing car on a street corner in the Roma neighborhood.

It also quoted witnesses as saying that an unidentified man was pushed into the path of a subway train at downtown Pino Suarez station by people arriving from the game.

But the police spokesman said there was no evidence that either death was related to World Cup celebrations.

The second-round victory sent the Mexican team into the quarterfinals next Saturday. Mexico will play the winner of today’s match between Morocco and West Germany.

The only other time Mexico played in a World Cup quarterfinal was in 1970, when it lost, 4-1, to Italy.

Fans poured out of Aztec Stadium in southern Mexico City shortly after the match ended Sunday and headed downtown, where the celebration continued until dawn Monday.

Traffic was halted along at least 20 blocks of Reforma Boulevard, a main thoroughfare through the heart of the city.