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Melee follows wild heavyweight bout in Las Vegas; 11 injured
LAS VEGAS (AP) -- Thousands of people panicked Saturday night after they believed shots were fired at the MGM Grand Hotel following a heavyweight fight between Evander Holyfield and Mike Tyson.At least 11 people were injured by flying glass or by being partially trampled, said Cathy Hayes, a spokeswoman for Mercy Ambulance.
Several people at the hotel insisted they had heard shots, but the Nevada Highway Patrol and Las Vegas police said they found no evidence of gunfire.
There were fights, police Sgt. Will Minor said, but officers found "no shells, no people wounded, no indentations."
Hotel spokesman Jack Leone said breaking glass sparked the melee about 20 minutes after the fight.
"A champagne bottle was broken in the main lobby from an altercation o whatever," he said. "There was a pop, and people thought that was gunfire. People ran for the main entrance, they knocked over (barricades) outside the main door ... There was no gunfire."
The fight ended after Tyson was disqualified for biting his opponent in the third round. That sent the 16,000 fans who witnessed the fight from the MGM Grand Garden into the parking lot, where they mingled with thousands of others who were at the resort on the city's famous Strip. Traffic was at a standstill.
The hotel's theme park was closed about 11 p.m., and police sealed off a two-block section of Tropicana Avenue to try and disperse the crowd.
More than 200 police officers and hotel guards worked to clear the jammed lobby as people ran through hallways. Restaurants in the 5,000-room hotel shut their doors to keep unwanted people out.
The crowds finally began to dwindle two hours after the fight.
Last September, rapper Tupac Shakur was fatally wounded in a shooting after watching the Tyson-Bruce Seldon title fight at the hotel.
After the fight, Shakur went to the home of Death Row Records chairman Marion "Suge" Knight before returning to the Strip, where he was shot. Shakur died at a hospital a few days later.