Police restrain a fan after last night’s violence. Photograph: Fabrizio Bensch/ Reuters

Uefa has confirmed that 157 people were arrested after violence flared before, during, and after Germany’s Euro 2008 victory against Poland yesterday.

Rival supporters clashed in the Austrian city of Klagenfurt which hosted the match, but Uefa was quick to play down reports of injuries.

“Klagenfurt reported 157 arrests during the match, mainly Germany supporters who were arrested in the city centre but the police said the situation cleared rapidly, nobody was injured and no material damage occurred,” said a Uefa spokesman.

Around 80,000 football fans were in Klagenfurt for the match, which Germany won 2-0.

The majority of those detained were rounded up after disturbances in the city centre, with 140 of those arrested coming from a group of German fans who were chanting Nazi slogans, and who included known hooligans.

Overall, 143 German fans were detained, along with a handful of Poles, Slovenians and Austrians, while two police offers were injured - one because of a traffic accident and another from a missile that was thrown.

Uefa also denied suggestions that the local police were ill-prepared for the number of fans that descended on Klagenfurt.

The spokesman added: “We have gone through all kinds of scenarios with Swiss and Austrian police, with the help of European police forces around the continent.

“There is no specific plan for every match. We think the overall concept works well. Sensitive matches are dotted around the map of Austria and Switzerland, you can turn anything into a sensitive match if you think twice about it.

“We are not particularly worried about a single episode. We have a global concept we apply, match by match and city by city. It is well rehearsed and we hope also for every match it will work.”

About this articleCloseThis article was first published on guardian.co.uk on Monday June 09 2008. It was last updated at 12:32 on June 09 2008.

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