RIO DE JANEIRO, June 19 — Brazilian police arrested about 100 Chile fans today for smashing their way into the Maracana Stadium, in some of the most serious disorder to date at the World Cup.

The ticketless fans, desperate to see their team face Spain, shattered a glass door at the media center at the iconic stadium in Rio de Janiero, broke fences and partition walls, and swarmed into internal corridors before security guards stopped them and held them for police.

A stadium security guard said police had arrested 100 people. FIFA gave the number of arrests as “at least 85” and said none of the intruders had made it into the stands.

But a security guard said some of the gate-crashers had traversed a tunnel leading from the media center to the pitch and been lifted up into the terraces, appearing to slip into the crowd.

FIFA said the situation had been “brought under control quickly”.

“The organisers of the FIFA World Cup condemn these acts of violence,” it said in a statement.

Danielle Figueiredo, a Brazilian volunteer at the media center, said the incident, which happened about an hour before the match, was “super scary.”

“It was an invasion of Chilean supporters with no tickets. They wanted to come into the media center and watch the game for free. They smashed the door... I think there were as many as 100 of them,” she told AFP.

An AFP correspondent saw police take away 24 young men, most wearing Chilean jerseys and many holding up papers in front of their faces to avoid being filmed by cameras.

Two of the young men proclaimed their innocence as police led them away.

“There was a sudden surge of people outside the center and I got swept up in it. I don’t know why I’m here. I haven’t done anything wrong,” said one.

“I didn’t do anything. Why are we being taken away?” said another.

It came after a group of fans in Argentina colors smashed through an entry gate at the same stadium before the country’s first World Cup match Sunday.

An amateur video of that incident posted online showed about 30 fans, many in Argentina jerseys and one wearing a Diego Maradona wig, jumping a wall and crashing through a gate to flood into a restricted area, overwhelming several security guards ahead of the Argentina-Bosnia game.

Nine people were arrested, said the local World Cup organising committee. They were released without charge after being booked and put on file.

At today’s match—which Chile won 2-0 to send holders Spain home—there were between 1,200 and 1,500 security staff at the stadium, plus about 5,000 police on duty in the surrounding area, a security guard told AFP.

FIFA said it would “communicate further information and measures to be taken in due course.” — AFP