GERMANY: Stuttgart police detained more than 400 football fans during the weekend in some of the worst violence in this World Cup so far.
After Germany's win, English and German fans clashed in the city centre on Saturday evening, prompting police to take into custody 400 English fans, 14 German fans and five of other nationalities.
About 70,000 England fans are estimated to be in Stuttgart and 100,000 Germans turned up at the fan park in the city to watch the hosts play Sweden, and it was after this that trouble flared.
"Apparently the England fans took exception to the Germans singing their songs after they won and the bottles and chairs started to fly," police said yesterday.
Riot police - including mounted police - moved in rapidly to separate the two groups and two officers were injured; one was hit in the head with a beer bottle and required hospital treatment.
All fans were released yesterday morning except for two England fans, aged 24 and 27. They were brought before a judge facing charges of insulting police, vandalism of property and violent behaviour.
They were returned to prison pending a decision on what to do with them.
Stuttgart police placed a ban on beer bottle sales in the inner city yesterday and warned fans they would be less tolerant of violent behaviour after the England-Ecuador match last night.
"Anybody who is with any group that throws bottles or other missiles, that will not be tolerated," said Stuttgart police chief Siegfried Stumpf.
Stephen Thomas, heading the team of British police working in Germany, said: "I don't consider these people to be English football supporters because they actually damage the reputation of the many thousands of real English supporters that will be here."
Despite the Stuttgart violence and the huge volume of beer being consumed, however, the championship has passed off remarkably peacefully so far, with hundreds of thousands of fans celebrating peacefully together in all major German cities.
(Additional reporting: Reuters)
