GERMANY: SOCCER/FOOTBALL - German soccer fans help cleaning up stadium following riots which left 36 police injured, caused 12,000 euros ($15,590) worth of damages

According to organisers, some 120 fans and supporters showed up for the operation which Lokomotive Leipzig president Steffen Kubold said showed "that Lok has real fans too who come to the stadium because of football and who want to distance themselves from the rioters." A week ago, on Saturday, February 10, a group of 800 soccer fans attacked police after the regional cup match, causing dozens of injuries, police said at the time. Hooligans from Lokomotive Leipzig hurled cobblestones and concrete blocks, injuring 36 officers and six members of the public after a Saxony state cup match between the club and Erzgebirge Aue II, Leipzig police said in a statement. One officer was forced to fire his weapon into the air to warn away a group of assailants after he became separated from his colleagues and another was injured in the leg with a shot from a blank firing gun, the statement said. Lok Leipzig fan Nicom Wycisk organised the clean-up operation. He told Reuters Television "We would like to demonstrate with this activity that we oppose violence." "The riots also put the Bruno-Blache-stadium in danger as a football ground and we would like to show that we, the fans of Lok, want to continue playing here at this stadium and not at the central stadium." The president of Lok Leipzig meanwhile said the club had decided "to step up security and increase the number of security personnel and tighten control." "But please remember that we're playing in the sixth league," Kubold said, referring to his club's limited budget.

ITN Source | February 18, 2007

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