French police boosted for Turkey-Croatia match

Paris (AFP) – French police said a stepped-up force of more than 1,500 officers will patrol at Sunday’s Turkey-Croatia Euro 2016 match in Paris which is considered at high risk of hooliganism.

“Alert instructions have been reinforced,” said Paris police spokeswoman Johanna Primevert, as authorities seek to avoid any repetition of the pitched battles between Russian and England fans in Marseille on Saturday.

A spokesman for the interior ministry, Pierre-Henry Brandet, said that many of those involved in the Marseille clashes “had not been reported by foreign police.”

The violence was the worst seen at an international tournament since the 1998 World Cup, leaving an Englishmen in a critical state and more than 30 others injured.

Fans who had been drinking heavily for hours pelted each other with bottles and cafe chairs in Marseille’s Vieux-Port district as 1,200 police tried to control the crowd with teargas.

Ten people were arrested, among them English, Russian, French, German and Austrian nationals, police sources said.