It's difficult to believe that the trouble at Loftus Versfeld at the weekend was started by two people.

Just after Mamelodi Sundowns scored their third goal through Ricardo Nascimento's penalty, two fans clad in Orlando Pirates regalia started to push the fence behind Denis Onyango's goal.

Soon, they were joined by others and, a few minutes later, Sundowns were 4-0 ahead in their Absa Premiership encounter.

By the time they scored the fifth, police had joined security officials behind the goal, trying to calm down the clearly irritated fans, whose numbers had swelled.

The fans began to rip out stadium chairs and, in a first, angrily fiddled with broadcast cables.

Shockingly, at this stage, police and security people retreated, which gave the rowdy fans an impetus, which they duly seized after Sundowns scored the sixth goal to jump over the parameters and wreck untold chaos. Cameramen capturing the match were attacked, dugouts were uprooted and one TV presenter told me she had her hair pulled by the hooligans.

Other media people with laptop bags - containing work equipment and valuables - abandoned them as they ran to seek refuge in the tunnel.

It was at this stage that some Sundowns fans joined in - triggering a full-blown on-pitch mêlée.

A police nyala arrived in the middle of this, after which stun grenades were fired and this somewhat helped chase both sets of fans away from the field.

Serious questions have to be asked about poor security arrangements at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday.

Despite evidence that trouble was brewing, police and security only acted once the situation had escalated into full-blown pandemonium.

I sat not too far from the Pirates fans who started the trouble, and sent out a tweet to that effect at 16:53.

At 17:10, the fans had still not been restrained and, at 17:15, punches were flying around on the field, with Sundowns fans having joined in, and several people were being assaulted with weapons, including corner flag poles and stadium chairs uprooted from the terraces.

Fortunately, no life was lost. But how a situation that looked so manageable was allowed to turn into a potential disaster is most astonishing. Saturday's incident laid bare the risks of attending domestic matches, and it's not only fans who were exposed to danger - everyone who was at Loftus, including players. This cannot be normal.

This calls for stern action, not terse statements and platitudes, from the PSL and police authorities, who were plain useless on Saturday (it was actually Sundowns fans who repelled the charging Pirates fans).

It can't be that difficult to find the culprits - the cameramen so harassed when doing their job were still able to capture the perpetrators of this violence.

Yet no one has been arrested, just as no one was held accountable for the October 2015 violence of Sundowns fans at Lucas Moripe Stadium.

And just like nothing was heard of previous pitch invasions involving Kaizer Chiefs when they won the title in 2015. But Saturday's was no ordinary pitch invasion. It threatened lives. It was pure criminality. Most disappointingly, it could well have been avoided had the police and security officials acted at the very moment the two fans started trouble.