English, West German Fans Fight
About 60 English and West German soccer fans fought a pitched battle near a train station in Stuttgart, West Germany after Ireland upset England, 1-0, in a European championship match Sunday.
Witnesses said about 30 chanting West German fans charged into a similar number of English fans. Both groups started punching and kicking each other before police broke them up, Reuters reported.
The fight lasted about 20 minutes. Police said 11 of the fans were arrested.
A total of 52 people, most of them English, were detained after several violent incidents in downtown Stuttgart in the early morning. Several groups of fans smashed store windows and brawled in bars.
Most of the fans detained so far after three days of the tournament in Frankfurt, Cologne, Dusseldorf, Stuttgart and Hanover have been English.
No charges have been brought, but one fan known to the police as one of England’s worst thugs was immediately sent home after being sighted in Stuttgart.
In another game Sunday, the Soviet Union upset the Netherlands, 1-0.
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