Jazairi 10 Posted June 13, 2012 Partager Posted June 13, 2012 June 13, 2012, 11:56 AM CET More Than 180 Held for Soccer Violence By Marcin Sobczyk WARSAW — Polish police said they detained more than 180 people after violent clashes Tuesday between groups of Polish and Russian supporters ahead of the two countries’ match at the European soccer championships. Referring to them in a statement as “pseudo-fans,” Warsaw police said they had apprehended 156 Poles and 25 Russians, as well as citizens of Spain, Hungary and Algeria. Police are using footage taken during the clashes to identify more people who took part in the violence. Non-Polish nationals implicated in the trouble will be extradited and non-European Union nationals will be denied entry to the EU’s passport-free Schengen zone for five years, Jacek Kozlowski, the central government’s representative in Warsaw, told a press conference. Groups of Russian and Polish fans clashed Tuesday on their way to the National Stadium in Warsaw, which has a capacity of 56,000. Some threw objects at the police, who used tear gas, riot guns and water cannons to disperse the hooligans. Medical teams said 10 people, including seven Poles, two Russians and a German, were wounded, but their injuries weren’t life-threatening. Eight people remained in the hospital as of Wednesday morning, Mr. Kozlowski said. The police showed pictures of balaclavas, firecrackers and mouthguards seized from some of the detained individuals. Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Wednesday the Poland-Russia game was likely one of the riskiest of Euro 2012, and that police will continue making arrests to ensure the rest of the tournament is safe. “We’ll be eliminating from the rest of the tournament those hooligans who took part in the riots yesterday,” he said. “In my view, the police [were] effective, taking into account the need not to escalate tension and to avoid brutality, but to be strict toward direct perpetrators of the riots.” Mr. Tusk added that the police, ignoring UEFA’s objections, were present in the stadium to prevent any escalation of the violence after obtaining information that some Russian fans wanted to enter the pitch at the end of the game. The Polish prime minister said violent clashes weren’t unusual during large sporting events, and that Warsaw “turned out to be a safer place” in comparison with other cities that have hosted such games. “This really wasn’t a historic Poland-Russia battle. Several hundred fools from both sides, like in any country in Europe, tried to prove they were more important than the average person and the European championship. We’ll teach them a lesson, regardless of whether they were Poles, Russians or anyone else,” Mr. Tusk said. Warsaw mayor Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz urged the police to demand strict penalties from courts. Poland has a fast-track court system for individuals charged with hooliganism. The mayor extended “apologies to our guests” for the disorder. The clashes before the Poland-Russia match, which ended in a 1-1 draw, have been the most serious so far in the UEFA Euro 2012 championship, which Poland is co-hosting with Ukraine. Russian-Polish relations are marked by mutual hostility after centuries of conflict. During their national anthem, Russian fans unfurled a massive banner of a knight with a sword, with the words “This is Russia” in English, across the bottom. Copyright ©2012 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. Citer Link to post Share on other sites
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