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MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. -- An entrance gate at Hard Rock Stadium, the venue for Sunday's Copa América final between Argentina and Colombia, has been locked following a security breach in which fans broke through.
Video on social media showed fans breaking through with some being tackled or otherwise apprehended by police and security personnel. A security guard manning an interior entrance to the stadium confirmed to ESPN that the southwest gate at the venue had been locked down due to a breach.
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Shortly after that, an officer for the Miami-Dade police department told ESPN that all gates were locked down, while another officer said it kept changing, describing the situation as "very fluid."
Video and images taken by ESPN showed fans crowding around the southwest gate waiting to be let in. Fans have been congregating at Hard Rock Stadium since well before the planned kickoff at 8 p.m. ET, with one parking lot attendant saying he had been called to work early given that fans started to arrive as early as 6 a.m.
The Copa América has been plagued by organizational and planning issues almost from the moment the tournament started, with teams complaining about field conditions, field sizes, the state of training fields, as well as crowd control issues.
At the conclusion of last Wednesday's semifinal when Colombia beat Uruguay, Uruguayan players Darwin Núñez and Ronald Araújo went into the stands at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, N.C., when they felt that family members were in danger from opposition fans.
Source: espn.co.uk