Bolivian football referee dies after collapsing during match
A referee collapsed during a top-flight football match at the world's highest stadium and later died after being taken to hospital.
The shocking scenes took place at the Bolivian Primera Division match between Always Ready and Oriente Petrolero held at the El Alto Municipal Stadium, considered the highest professional football stadium in the world at 4,150 metres above sea level.
Referee Victor Hugo Hurtado, 32, collapsed in the 47th minute of the match. A video of the game shows medics treating him on the pitch, the assistant referees looking on worriedly as an oxygen tank is brought onto the pitch.
Members of the medical team then rush a stretcher onto the pitch before a replay shows Hurtado collapsing to his knees during the match.
Hurtado was rushed to the El Norte Hospital but was declared dead an hour later. The cause of death has not yet been officially determined but Always Ready president Fernando Costa said the referee had suffered "cardiac arrest."
The Bolivian Football Federation confirmed Hurtado¡'s death in a statement which expressed their solidarity with Hurtado's family.
Costa said it was "too early" to link Hurtado's death with the altitude of the stadium.
The fourth official Julio Fernando Gutierrez was brought in to complete the match which Always Ready won 5-0.
