Euro
2016 violence spreads to second French city
MARSEILLE, FRANCE |
BY MITCH PHILLIPS
Violent clashes
between fans spread to a second French city on Saturday, tainting the
opening days of the Euro 2016 soccer tournament and raising questions
among supporters over policing tactics.
Several hundred
English and Russian fans squared off in Marseille, hurling beer
bottles and chairs and drawing volleys of tear gas from riot police
who struggled to contain the skirmishes in the narrow streets of the
Vieux Port (Old Port).
Later, in scenes
that could draw sanctions from European soccer's governing body,
UEFA, Russian supporters charged their English counterparts inside
Marseille's Stade Velodrome moments after the final whistle of their
teams' 1-1 draw.
England fans were
forced to scale fences to escape the charge, while shocking pictures
of a father trying to protect his young son while masked Russian fans
were kicking and punching retreating fans around him went viral and
left fans fuming at the authorities' failure to intervene.
The Russian team
could now face an anxious wait after the crowd trouble. Four years
ago Russia was sanctioned and handed a suspended six-point deduction
following crowd trouble in Poland at Euro 2012.
Meanwhile, along the
Mediterranean coast, Northern Irish fans were involved in a ugly
exchanges with locals in the city of Nice that left seven people
hurt.
European soccer's
governing body, UEFA, condemned the day's events. "People
engaging in such violent acts have no place in football," it
said in a statement.
Marseille's
emergency services said 31 people were injured in Saturday's
disorder, including one middle-aged man who was knocked unconscious,
and one England supporter who suffered a heart attack.
Broken glass and
debris littered some roads and alleys near the waterfront, the focal
point of clashes between English, Russian and French fans.
The clouds of tear
gas produced images of unrest all too similar, though on a much
smaller scale, to those in the city 18 years ago when violence flared
for two days and nights around England's World Cup game against
Tunisia.
While the tournament
is being played under a state of emergency after militant Islamists
attacked Paris in November, French police will be under pressure to
snuff out the fan violence.
France has deployed
more than 90,000 police, soldiers and private security agents across
the country to ensure safety for the tournament in the face of
intelligence agency warnings of potential attacks on stadiums, fan
zones or other soft targets.
(Additional
reporting by Antonio Denti and Jean-Francois Rosnoblet in Marseille
and Richard Lough, Dominique Vidalon and Chine Labbe in Paris;
writing by Richard Lough; editing by Janet Lawrence and Dominic
Evans)
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