Protest action causes snooker world cup to be halted

A man spreads orange powder on a snooker table. Only after being vacuumed and with a fresh cloth could the Crucible Theater continue.

Activists protested the match and postponed the Sheffield World Snooker Championship. A man jumped on one of the two pool tables at the Crucible Theater Monday night. From a bag he spread an orange powdery substance on the table. The match between Robert Milkins and Joe Perry had started there on the evening of the third day of the tournament.

The game was stopped at the start and the table was cleaned with a vacuum cleaner. Then it must be covered with a new cloth. While it was initially said in the arena that the match should continue as soon as possible, the World Snooker Tour later announced that the first session between Milkins and Perry should now only begin on Tuesday evening.

In addition, one protester attempted to climb onto the other table. This was prevented by Belgian referee Olivier Martel, who grabbed the woman, as seen in a video clip. There, after a 40-minute break, the match that started in the morning between Mark Allen from Northern Ireland and Fan Zhengyi from China continued. There is a partition between the two tables that can be removed.

British activist group Just Stop Oil distributed a video of the event on its Twitter account. According to Sky Sports, a 30-year-old man and a 52-year-old woman were arrested after the protest. Both were wearing white T-shirts, and the guy had the name of the group on it.

(APA)