With the breeze directing the gas straight on to the field of play, players covered their faces with jerseys and fans also rushed out of Rad’s dilapidated ground early in the second half.
Rad returned after a 10-minute delay but the visitors remained in their dressing-room and refused to carry on.
“We will not be ready for a replay or a continuation within the next 24 hours because the game was not abandoned over natural causes such as bad weather, while four of our players had to be taken to hospital,” Metalac president Dragoljub Vukadinovic told Belgrade media. The league’s director Vladimir Bulatovic said five players were unwell after the incident.
"Clearly the match could not continue, but it has to finish at the first available opportunity even if that is not (on Thursday),” he said. An early Ognjen Ozegovic goal put Rad ahead after a goalless first leg at Metalac.
Serbian club football has been littered with fan violence in the last 25 years.
“We are really distraught with what happened and hope that the tie will end in the best possible way,” Rad president Vladimir Savic said.
Cash-strapped 1991 European Cup winners Red Star, who won their Serbian first league title since 2007 last month, have also in turmoil this week after several players said they had not been paid for months and threatened to sue the club.
(Writing by Zoran Milosavljevic; Editing by Ed Osmond)
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