WORLD CUP ’90 : English Fans Clash With Riot Police
Baton-wielding riot police on the island of Sardinia charged about 20 drunken English soccer fans Sunday after they began throwing bottles and injured a young Italian boy.
Local residents in the Sardinian capital of Cagliari punched and kicked the English fans, witnesses said, and several of the fans were detained.
At least three English fans lay on the ground injured, one with blood streaming from his nose and another with a gash across the back of his neck.
Carabinieri riot police later chased more English fans through the railway station where another 20 were detained and searched.
The first clash began on Cagliari’s main seafront promenade where the English fans, some drinking from whiskey and beer bottles, began shouting racist slogans and taunting police.
Police kept a low profile during the incident until a bottle was thrown and hit the boy, who looked about 10 years old, on the ankle. He was taken away in a police car.
It was the second major clash in three days between riot police and English fans, who are in Cagliari for England’s three first-round matches in the World Cup.
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