Photos: @CRIMELDN

FLARES lit up Blackstock Road on Wednesday night as football fans celebrated a cup match victory.

But the group waving flags and fireworks were not Arsenal supporters belatedly celebrating the Gunners 5-0 victory over Chelsea this week– instead the dramatic scenes in Finsbury Park coincided the conclusion of the Algerian Cup semi-final.

Sixteen hundred miles away, CR Belouizdad had defeated USM Alger after a penalty shootout.

Witnesses said clouds of smoke had fogged the road – sometimes known by the nickname Little Algiers – and a group began chanting and setting off red flares.

The group were also carrying white and red flags with them.

“It is very scary, everywhere there was smoke, everybody was coughing, everybody was running, everywhere cars stopped, buses stopped,” said a restaurant worker in the road, who asked the Tribune not to print his name.

“This always happens when they have a [football] match, the police can’t control them.”

Police said they were called to the scene at around 8pm to “reports of a group of people setting off fireworks in the vicinity of Ambler Road.”

Ozzy Koral, who works in Arsenal Food and Wine on Blackstock Road said: “They were waving flags, white and red and white flags so I think it’s the colour of their teams. The bigger the competition, the bigger the drama.

“When they came to the end of the road, some went left, some went right, some went straight,” he said.

Big displays by football fans are not uncommon on Blackstock Road according to shop and restaurant owners there.

“We’re used to it, but normal people were asking what was going on,” said Mr Koral.

A spokesperson for the Met Police said that “officers attended, and the group dispersed” and that there were “no reports of any injuries.”