The Serie A game was called off this afternoon as a sign of mourning and amid fears of crowd trouble after 27-year-old Matteo Bagnaresi was killed at a motorway service station outside Turin.

The exact dynamics are still hazy, as there are two different versions of events. Some eyewitnesses claim the driver was looking in his mirrors to check the chasing Parma supporters were not closing in and therefore did not notice Bagnaresi crossing his path.

Another version given by a friend of the deceased insists it was a tragic accident and had nothing to do with football.

“Matteo was near to the rear tyres of the minibus and was hit when it went into reverse. The driver did not see or realise what had happened.

“We tried shouting at him to stop, but he was probably afraid and thought we were threatening him, so he drove off.”

According to witnesses at the motorway service station, there was no physical contact whatsoever between the two sets of fans.

All there was before the driver got into the minibus was an exchange of verbal insults.

The game was called off to avoid potential reprisals and passed without further incident at the Stadio Olimpico in Turin.

Full details are still emerging but the supporter, 27-year-old Matteo Bagnaresi, was at a motorway service station on the A1 between Alessandria and Asti.

Tension was said to be rising between groups of rival supporters, and some newspapers say that a bus containing nine Juve fans was attacked. The driver then tried to get away and accidentally ran over Bagnaresi.

The driver of the bus reportedly did not even know he had run over a person, and was stopped 2km down the highway by police, pleading that he did not know what had happened.

As a precaution Juventus and Parma decided to call off this afternoon’s game.

By a cruel twist of fate this tragedy takes place on the return matchday from when Lazio fan Gabriele Sandri was accidentally shot dead by policeman at a motorway service station on November 11.