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City council boss speaks out after Uefa violence

16/05/2008

Manchester city council leader Sir Richard Leese has assured that measures were put into place to deal with a large influx of Rangers and Zenit St Petersburg football fans on Wednesday.

He said it was a small number of Rangers fans who were responsible for the violent scenes which spoiled the Uefa Cup final celebrations.

More than 40 arrests were made in relation to violent clashes in and around the city centre after the Scottish side lost 2-0.

Sir Richard told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "We estimate we had at least 100,000 Rangers fans in the city yesterday and some estimates get that nearer 200,000.

"We did make provision with large screens all over the city centre, one of them went down. We made provision of another screen immediately."

He said that most of the people went to the other screen but a "small number" started throwing bottles and other missiles at the police.

CCTV footage of the violence shows one incident in which an officer was tripped up and attacked by a gang as he lay on the floor.