Mayor sorry over football violence
The mayor of Warsaw has apologised to visitors over football hooliganism involving fans of Poland and Russia that left dozens of people injured when their teams met in the European Championship.
For the most part, Polish officials tried to put a positive spin on the disturbances, saying a strong and effective police response prevented worse bloodshed.
One official called it the biggest-ever police security operation in Warsaw, with riot police firing rubber bullets and using water cannon and tear gas, while officers detained 184 people - most of them Poles.
The interior ministry said police "did not allow aggression to escalate on the part of the hooligans" and caught "the most aggressive fans".
It also stressed that most Polish and Russian fans enjoyed themselves in a spirit of "festivity".
Warsaw mayor Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz apologised to "our guests," the thousands of visitors who travelled for Euro 2012, which is being held in Poland and the Ukraine, calling the violence a "scandalous" disturbance of public order.
"I apologise and I deplore the fact that hooligans have exposed our guests to a loss of a sense of security," Ms Gronkiewicz-Waltz told a news conference.
Authorities gave varying figures on the number of injured. Police said 19 civilians and 17 officers were hurt, while ambulance officials gave an overall figure of 24 earlier in the day, and Warsaw Province governor Jacek Kozlowski said up to 140 people required some type of medical treatment, including for the effects of tear gas.
Polish prime minister Donald Tusk said that, all in all, the trouble was "limited in scale" compared to what it might have been given the heated national emotions and the numbers of fans on each side. About 45,000 people watched the game at the stadium and around 75,000 others on huge TV screens in a central fan zone. The fights were scattered across Warsaw city centre, with none taking place at the National Stadium or in the fan zone.
Meanwhile, Russia will spend the next three-and-a-half years playing under the threat of a six-point deduction for their 2016 European Championship qualifying campaign after a Uefa crackdown on the behaviour of their fans last week. The Russian Football Union were also fined 120,000 euro (£96,761) for the "improper conduct" of their supporters during their opening Euro 2012 Group A match against Czech Republic on Friday.
