THE crowd violence at the Champions League game between Marseille and Eintracht Frankfurt resulted in injuries to 17 police officers and two German fans, one of whom sustained a serious neck injury after being hit by a flare, national police said Wednesday.
Riot police intervened twice — shortly before Tuesday’s game and then late on — when opposing fans launched flares and fireworks at each other from close range for several minutes inside Stade Velodrome.
National police said 11 of the officers were lightly injured. Seventeen people were detained.
The latest incidents of stadium violence in France came just days after 32 people were injured in a mass brawl between ultras from Nice and German club Cologne last Thursday before a Europa Conference League match.
Tuesday’s match in Marseille was classified as very high risk, considering violent elements among both groups of supporters, and a large-scale police operation successfully contained the risk of fan violence in the city itself.
Tensions were elevated by late Tuesday afternoon when a huge police escort took a group of Frankfurt hardcore fans — called “ultras” — numbering around 500 up a long road to a designated fan zone.
AP
