Indian man’s flag attack leaves Portugal fans enraged

The builders: Indian technicians Karthick Kolanchi (left), Karthikraja Velmurugana (right) along with construction manager Selvakumar Irudayanathan, who worked for the installation of the Stadium 974 pose beside a giant replica of the World Cup trophy in Doha. — AFP

NEW DELHI: An Indian man has been arrested after upsetting his football-mad neighbours by tearing up a Portugal flag, hoisted for the World Cup, when he mistook it for the emblem of a controversial Islamist group.

Social media footage showed Deepak Elangode pulling the flag off its hoisting and violently tearing it into strips before casting the fragments onto the roadside in the small town of Panoor in southern Kerala state.