HANOI, June 4: At least two people were killed in Vietnam’s commercial capital of Ho Chi Minh City over the weekend as football fans staged illegal motorbike races to celebrate the World Cup, the city’s police daily reported Tuesday.

The fatal race on Sunday evening involved nearly 1,000 motorbikes racing down city centre streets, the daily said. One of the dead was a racer, the other a pedestrian.

Police arrested around 20 bikers in Ho Chi Minh City and about 30 in Hanoi after similar illegal races here.

Football is by far the most popular spectator sport here and young people in the big cities regularly mark major international tournaments with illegal races.—AFP