Angry scenes in Pyongyang

North Korean Nam Song Chol (16) assaults the referee after disputing a penalty decision in their Group B Asian zone World Cup soccer qualifier against Iran at the Kim Il-Sung stadium in Pyongyang yesterday. - AFP

PYONGYANG (AFP) - Wild scenes erupted in Pyongyang on Wednesday after North Korea lost their World Cup football qualifier to Iran, with angry fans throwing bottles and chairs at the referee and visiting team.

An angry mob of thousands gathered outside the Kim Il-Sung stadium after the match and stopped the Iranian players from leaving as hundreds of policemen were deployed inside and outside the ground in efforts to restore order.

"My players tried to go the bus (to leave the stadium) but it was not possible. It was a very dangerous situation," Iran coach Branko Ivankovic told AFP as the crowd remained outside behind a cordon of police four deep.

The crowd milling about 10 metres outside the stadium was finally pushed back another 100 metres almost two hours after the final whistle, although many remained as dusk set in at 7pm (1000 GMT).

North Korea lost the match 2-0 in a result that all but closed the door on qualifying for the World Cup finals in Germany next year, and both the players and the crowd began behaving furiously in the dying stages of the match.

The players enflamed the crowd when they converged on referee Mohammed Kousa, shoving him and screaming, after he waved a penalty appeal for hand-ball.

The match was held up for more than five minutes as Kousa retreated from the pack of North Korean players and bottles from the crowd were thrown onto the athletics track surrounding the pitch.

Match officials went onto the pitch to help Kousa, who finally restored order and handed a red card to North Korean defender Nam Song-Chol. After the final whistle, Kousa and the two assistant referees were left standing on the pitch for more than 20 minutes as more bottles, some chairs and other objects were thrown from the crowd.

Police and soldiers lined the athletics track as tens of thousands of fans remained in the stands and booed in an extremely tense stand-off, which ended when the referees finally ran off the pitch amid more bottles being thrown in their direction.

The Iranian team remained on the field for about 10 minutes before sprinting off the pitch under a similar hail of objects.

Ivankovic said none of his players had been struck, although they had felt in physical danger.

"It was a very hostile situation on the field. Before the game and after the game many things happened that were not normal... you know when it is a big crowd outside everything is possible," he said.

North Korea was already incensed at what it believed was unfair refereeing during its home defeat to Bahrain last week and was planning to make an official complaint to FIFA, according to a pro-Pyongyan Korean-language newspaper based in Japan.

Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin