An injured AC Milan supporter is treated by medics during clashes with police before the Italian Serie A football match with Atalanta in Bergamo yesterday. Scuffles between fans and police erupted at the stadium in the northern city of Bergamo as news of the death of a Lazio fan spread. Two policemen were slightly injured, local police said. - Reuters

MILAN, ITALY (Reuters)

Inter Milan's match with Lazio was postponed yesterday and AC Milan's game at Atalanta was abandoned early on after a Lazio fan was accidentally shot dead by a police officer.

AS Roma's late home match with Cagliari was also postponed, an Italian football federation spokesman said, quoting Rome's civil defence officer.

The Lazio fan was killed during clashes with Juventus supporters at a service station near Arezzo, prompting the federation to postpone the San Siro match and delay the kickoffs of the other Serie A matches by 10 minutes.

The dead man was in a car with other Lazio fans, police said.

News of the fan's death filtered through to other fans and violence erupted before the Atalanta game with supporters scuffling with police in riot gear.

The match went ahead but a small group of fans, covering their faces with scarves, tried to smash a glass barrier keeping them from the pitch, prompting the players to leave the field in the seventh minute.

The game was abandoned 40 minutes later with players telling media that the fans had threatened to cause more trouble if the game had re-started.

A match in Italy's third tier at Taranto was also suspended because of fan violence, media reported.

Roma general manager Rosella Sensi told reporters that fear of more violence was not the main reason for the request to postpone her side's game.

"In a sign of solidarity with Lazio fans and all the city of Rome grieving the death of Gabriele Sandri, it is right to ask the postponement of the game this evening in the Stadio Olimpico against Cagliari," she said.