Tottenham Fans Injured in Clashes in Rome

AFRIK UPDATE

SPORTS


A Tottenham Hotspur supporter has been seriously injured and nine others hurt in clashes with rival fans in Rome

         

Spurs are due to play Lazio in the Italian capital later in a Europa League match, and hundreds of their fans are in the city.

The Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper reported the Spurs fan was seriously injured in the bar brawl.

He is understood to have suffered a serious injury to an artery after being stabbed.

Nine of the injured fans are believed to be British and the 10th is American.

The BBC's Rome correspondent, Alan Johnston, reported police as saying 30 people - armed with iron bars and with their faces covered - approached the bar where the English fans were drinking in the early hours of Thursday and fighting broke out.

Our correspondent said the bar was wrecked and five people were arrested.

All of them were Italians who the police believe to be Lazio fans.

Some Lazio supporters have in the past been associated with fascism - the club was supported by Mussolini before the war - while Tottenham have traditionally drawn support from the Jewish community.

Some Spurs fans refer to themselves as the "Yid Army", and earlier this year Peter Herbert, chairman of the Society of Black Lawyers, threatened to report them to the police.

The newspaper La Repubblica said "urban warfare" broke out at the Drunken Ship bar in the Campo de' Fiori with up to 100 "Ultras" attacking Spurs fans.

It said Lazio fans were armed with knives, baseball bats, and knuckle dusters.

A spokesman for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said it was investigating and would provide consular assistance.