Fans clash in Gelsenkirchen before England face Serbia in Euro 2024 game

An England fan and one police officer have been left with heavy head wounds after hooligans attacked a bar where Serbia supporters were drinking before the Serbia v England game at Euro 2024.

Shortly after 3.30pm local time, tens of Serbs standing outside a bar on Arminstraße in central Gelsenkirchen were targeted with projectiles, according to witnesses to the violence.

“Chairs, bottles, everything you can imagine suddenly came down,” said one eyewitness. The perpetrators of the violence fled the scene as about 200 German riot police arrived.

One man, said to be from Birmingham, was left with heavy wounds to his head as he was caught up in the fighting. He was seen receiving medical attention including heavy bandaging to the head. A plainclothes police officer was also treated for a blow to the head.

It is understood a group of hooligans, whose nationality has not been confirmed, had been seen by British police “spotters” rushing towards a bar in which about 30 Serbia fans were enjoying a drink five hours before the kick-off of England’s first game.

The German riot police vans were called in but arrived shortly after the attack. About 200 officers sealed off the bar from further attacks while smaller squads of riot police were despatched to hunt down the perpetrators. A police spokesman said that no arrests had been made.

More than 30,000 England fans – only 20,000 of whom are believed to have tickets – have arrived in Gelsenkirchen for the game with Serbia. The match has been designated as “high risk” due to the reputation of the two fanbases, with the police last week warning that up to 500 Serbian hooligans bent on violence could seek to cause trouble.

Some reports claimed that Albanians were involved in instigating the violence but a German police spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

British police have been working in close cooperation with their German counterparts, with undercover spotters from both nations working among the supporters drinking in the bars around Gelsenkirchen in west Germany.

There has been an uptick of football disorder in recent years in England and Wales related to domestic matches, leading to concerns that such behaviour could spill over into internationals.

A downward trend in terms of the number of arrests at domestic football games has been sharply reversed post-Covid, with the number now at the heights of a decade ago.

As of August 2023, there were 1,624 football banning orders in force, an increase of 24% compared with the year before. Within the 2022-23 season, 682 banning orders were issued, an annual increase of 32%.

All those under banning orders have had to surrender their passports for the duration of the tournament in Germany.