Before the first European Championship match in Gelsenkirchen, Serbian and English fans clashed in the city center. There are large police presence throughout the city.
There were fights in the city center of Gelsenkirchen on Sunday before the European Championship match between England and Serbia. There were clashes between two large groups of people and a police operation was underway, said a spokesman for the Gelsenkirchen police.
Serbian and English fans were involved and were separated. Seven Serbian fans were arrested. In addition, a criminal complaint was filed against a Serb for grievous bodily harm. No English fans were arrested.
The background to the encounter is still unclear. “The police are taking further action, including why it happened and what the background is,” said the spokesman. The spokesman was unable to provide any information on the number of injured. The British newspaper “Guardian” reported that an English fan and a German police officer were wounded in the head.
In videos shared on the X platform, chairs and tables can be seen flying through the air, as well as broken glass bottles. “We are aware of the material circulating on X and are evaluating it,” said a police spokesman. Apart from the incident, things remained largely quiet in the city before the European Championship match. “Otherwise, there was nothing unusual or major. We are not aware of any other clashes between fan camps.”
The Gelsenkirchen police had previously reported that they were planning to deploy significantly more officers for the European Championship match, which was considered a high-risk match, than for a local derby. “For tactical reasons, I cannot tell you the exact number of officers deployed,” said Peter Both, Chief Police Director, before the first match of the European Football Championship in Gelsenkirchen. However, he had never had so many officers available for a match between Schalke 04 and Borussia Dortmund.
Both expects there to be around 20,000 English and around 10,000 Serbians in the stadium. The police estimate that another 15,000 English people will go to the race track for a public viewing without tickets. It is not possible to estimate the number of Serbians. Only beer with a reduced alcohol content will be served in the stadium itself and, according to the police, there is a ban on bringing beer into the seats inside the stadium for this game.
