Unprovoked police attacks on Liverpool fans in France

WORLD  29 May 2022 - 12:00

On May 28, French police attacked Liverpool fans as they watched the Champions League final against Spanish Real Madrid in a fan zone organised in Paris.

On Sunday night, Real beat Liverpool 1-0 to win the Champions League for the 14th time, TASS reports citing Daily Mail.

The tabloid pops up in a video that shows well-equipped law enforcement officers getting into clashes with football fans. The newspaper claims that this was not provoked by anything, and reports citing eyewitnesses that it turned out that there were pregnant women and children among the fans.

"The police stood around with water cannons and other crowd control devices at the ready all day long, and their numbers grew. They seemed to be unhappy with how much [fans] were drinking and decided to step in. Apparently, it was an unprovoked [move]," Daily Mail quotes an eyewitness who said that the incident occurred during the first half of the meeting.

According to the article, a police source said that law enforcement officers responded to riots among thousands of British fans who had gathered in the area of the Place de la Nation in the east of Paris. According to the publication, it was set aside to protect some of the about 40,000 English fans who came to the French capital to support the team but did not have tickets.

The start of the match was delayed for 37 minutes due to security concerns. Due to traffic jams, Liverpool arrived at the stadium later than planned. There were also problems with the access of fans to the stadium - there were long queues at the education arena, and the police reportedly used tear gas.

The Champions League final was to be held in St Petersburg. On February 25, UEFA announced the postponement of the final match in Paris due to the situation in Ukraine.

Caliber.Az