Ecuador soccer coach Hernan Dario Gomez was in a stable condition early today after being shot in the leg in the coastal city of Guayaquil, a nurse said at the clinic treating him.
"He's out of danger. It's not serious. The bullet hit him in the leg and he has a fractured nose," the nurse at Guayaquil's Clinica Kennedy told Reuters.
Colombian native Gomez was attacked at about 10 p.m. local time on Tuesday (0300 Irish time today) in the café at the Hilton Colon hotel, said a director of Ecuador's soccer league who was with him at the time.
Police in Guayaquil said they had arrested one of the people allegedly involved in the attack.
Ecuador are in third place in the standings among the South American teams vying to qualify for the 2002 World Cup in Japan and Korea. The top four teams go through to the finals.