SICK SHAMBLES

Fans feared stadium disaster as French police fired tear gas

- PATRICK HILL

IT was meant to be a thrilling day out in the Parisian sunshine, a game to mark the culmination of a high achieving season for Liverpool and the opportunity to be crowned champions of Europe.

What should have been filled with memories for Liverpool fans to cherish turned into a nightmare that some feared would turn into another stadium disaster.

Liverpool fan Edward Lynch, an A&E doctor, summed it up: "It was a shambles. The whole thing was a mess.

"Fans were really scared it was going to end in another stadium disaster.

Dr Lynch added that he had helped treat a man in his 70s who said he had been hit by a police baton or shield during a melee outside the stadium.

I left my seat inside the Stade de France at 7.25 pm - 35 minutes before the planned kick-off time - after hearing there were huge queues outside and thugs had tried to storm the gates.

GOADED

I saw large numbers of ticketless men trying to get through the stadium's secure perimeter.

Some succeeded in breaking through and ran into the stadium.

I watched as others goaded baton-wielding police and threw missiles.

Despite what the French interior minister said, from what I saw - and from what others told me - these weren't Liverpool fans causing trouble. It was actually local gangs.