German Fans Detained After Day of Violence

German soccer fans fought riot police Sunday outside a World Cup game in Lens, France, and one officer was in a coma after being hit on the head by a German with an iron bar.

Television footage showed the policeman lying on a bloody pavement. The officer, identified as 44-year-old Daniel Nivel, is married with two children and lives in the nearby town of Arres.

The officer was flown by helicopter to a hospital in Lille.

In all, 86 soccer fans--mostly Germans--were detained after clashes with police before and after the match with Yugoslavia, which ended 2-2. Six of the people detained--again, mostly Germans--were immediately deported.

As many as 450 skinheads were seen on the streets of Lens before and after the match giving Nazi salutes.

A Brazilian television cameraman was also injured in the fighting, police said, although he was not in serious condition.

“For the most part [the hooligans were] sober--not like the ones in Marseille,” regional prefect Daniel Cadoux said, referring to English soccer fans who rampaged in the southern city last Monday after a match against Tunisia. English fans fought with Tunisians and locals last weekend in Marseille, leaving 50 injured and 100 arrested.

He also said they were “perfectly organized, with means of communication. They didn’t come to support their team. They came to smash things up, to attack security forces.”

Riot police brought in reinforcements and sealed off the downtown area.

As night fell, police patrolled the town in cars, but the atmosphere was calm, and most fans had left. Most bar and restaurant owners, fearing further violence, had closed shortly after the match.

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Scuffles broke out in the stands at the World Cup game between Iran and the United States in Lyon as opponents of the Tehran government were removed by police.

Thousands of supporters of the Mujahedeen Khalq, the largest Iranian opposition group, filled the 44,000-seat Gelrand Stadium. Most wore T-shirts with pictures of Mujahedeen leader Masoud Rajavi, or his wife Maryam, the exile group’s president.

Police had to go into the stands several times to prevent supporters from unfurling large yellow banners emblazoned with “Rajavi,” or portraits of the two leaders. Some supporters were escorted out of the stadium.

In Toulouse, where England plays Romania today, police identified four known troublemakers who were detained. About 100 so-called category ‘B’ and ‘C’ hooligans had also been identified.

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Cha Bum-kun was fired as South Korea’s soccer coach after a crushing 5-0 loss to the Netherlands.

The former international star said he was upset, but not embittered by his sudden dismissal.

“I tried my best, but the results were poor,” Cha said at a hastily called news conference in Paris.

The decision to fire Cha came hours after the humiliating defeat in Marseille. Chun Hanjin, the team’s assistant manager, said the technical committee called a meeting Sunday in Paris.

“Somebody had to take responsibility,” Chun said. “It ends right here, right now for him.”

Cha was replaced by assistant coach Kim Pyung-seok.

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South African players Brendan Augustine and Naughty Mokoena were suspended for the rest of the World Cup after staying out until dawn Sunday in Vichy.

Augustine, who started both of South Africa’s matches, and Mokoena, a reserve unlikely to see any action, will miss the rest of their country’s first World Cup.

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Thousands of soccer fans took to the streets of Dhaka and Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh and attacked cars and buses after a power outage disrupted live television coverage of the Japan-Croatia match.