Two England fans arrested for assault

NUREMBERG, June 15 (Reuters) Two England fans were arrested in Nuremberg overnight and three others briefly held by police ahead of the World Cup Group B game against Trinidad&Tobago, British police said today.

Stephen Thomas, the head of a British police team working in Germany, said two England fans were arrested for an assault which was thought to be on two German fans who were also arrested.

Three other English supporters were held by police after throwing bottles and were released a few hours later when they had calmed down. A police spokeswoman had said they were also arrested but Thomas said this was not the case.

Nearly 80 British officers are working in Germany during the World Cup, either patrolling the streets with their German counterparts or working as advisers.

Last night, several hundred England supporters gathered outside an Irish bar in the centre of Nuremberg, with some singing songs about World War Two.

Riot police closed off part of the street to prevent German fans moving into the area and Thomas praised their actions today.

''(There) was some excellent work by Nuremberg police to deal with that situation, particularly when the German people came on to the streets to celebrate their last minute win,'' he said.

The hosts beat neighbours Poland 1-0 in a Group A match in Dortmund where police charged 96 people with criminal offences following clashes before the highly-charged game.

Some 70,000 England fans were in Frankfurt for their side's opening 1-0 win over Paraguay and Thomas said he expected about 50,000 in Nuremberg for the 6 p.m. (1600 GMT) game.

''The vast majority of our supporters... are very well behaved,'' he said. ''They come to a country, they respect the local people, they drink a lot, they make a lot of noise and they have a party.

''But there is still a small minority amongst our supporters that can cause problems particularly when they're drunk.'' Thomas said 48 U.K. nationals had been arrested across Germany during the tournament although it was not known how many of those were actually U.K. citizens.

He said some 1,500 fans from around the world had been arrested during the World Cup so far.

''Overall, so few (English) arrests with so many people all over Germany, I think is a great success,'' he said.

England play their last group game against Sweden on Tuesday in Cologne.

REUTERS

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