Ex-Arsenal player Reyes laid to rest

UTRERA, Spain: Hundreds of mourners attended the funeral in Spain on Monday of former Real Madrid and Arsenal forward Jose Antonio Reyes, who was killed in a weekend car crash.

Reyes’ coffin, drapped in the flag of his boyhood club Sevilla, was carried through the streets of his hometown of Utrera before the funeral service at a local church.

The 35-year-old former Spanish international died Saturday in an accident on the main road from Sevilla to Utrera. The crash and resultant fireball also claimed the life of one of his cousins while another passenger was still in hospital Monday, according to police. Images from the scene of the crash show the burnt-out car flipped on its roof.

Daily newspaper Diario de Sevilla reported Reyes was driving over 200 kilometres (125 miles) per hour at the time of the accident while sports daily Mundo Deportivo, citing a police report, said he was going at 237 kilometres per hour. Contacted by AFP, a spokesman for Spain’s Guardia Civil police force which is investigating the accident declined to comment on the reports.

On the day of the crash former Spanish international Santiago Canizares criticised Reyes, who reportedly owned a fleet of high-powered cars, for driving at high speed. “Speeding is a reprehensible attitude.