If anyone thought French police were taking a ‘laissez faire’ approach to football violence during Euro 2016, just ask the Polish fans.
Ultras were involved in ugly street battles ahead of their Euro 2016 clash with Ukraine in Marseille and police came down hard on them.
Thousands of fans marched through the streets chanting and shouting – but a hard core of Polish fans reportedly clashed with each other in the city’s Old Port area which was the scene of violence between English and Russian fans.
French police took no prisoners (they did actually – there were a number of arrests) and they stamped out the trouble with water canons, tear gas and baton charges, according to Reuters.
French police use tear gas, water cannon to disperse Polish football fans (PHOTOS, VIDEOS) https://t.co/dA1dHBLGX1 pic.twitter.com/d0dHZuEhCw
— RT Sport (@RTSportNews) June 21, 2016
Bloodied Polish fans were filmed being taken down and pinned to the floor by police and the Daily Mail report there were at least five people arrested outside the Stade Velodrome.
‘The scene is absolute chaos,’ one fan identified only as a 22-year-old Warsaw man called said. ‘There are fights all around the ground, and much of the violence looks organised.
‘I’d love to say the Polish fans are not involved, but there are quite a few shouting far-right nationalistic slogans, and attacking people.’
More than 1,000 police and private security personnel were on the streets around the stadium to deal with incidents like this after widespread violence earlier in the tournament.
This latest outbreak of violence came just hours after Polish fans were photographed marching through the streets with a huge ‘Defenders of European Culture’ banner.
Polish football fans in Marseille! Defenders of European culture! #DefendEurope pic.twitter.com/uWSntFgVHc
— Zsuzsanna (@2x2sometimes5) June 21, 2016
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sH645UISls
Local authorities in Marseille believe far-right elements among the Polish fans may have been targeting the city’s large Muslim population.
