German police 'not that worried' over England fans' trouble

German organisers have played down trouble involving England fans in Stuttgart and insisted the scale of the problem is small compared to the numbers of supporters at the World Cup overall.

More than 300 fans are in police custody following two nights of incidents and are expected to be detained until after today’s match with Ecuador.

Around 70,000 England are estimated to be in Stuttgart and 100,000 Germans turned up at the fan park in the city to watch the hosts play Sweden, and it was after this that trouble flared.

Jens Grittner, spokesman for the German World Cup organising committee, said: “Police intervened immediately and we are very happy about that, but these incidents have nothing to do with hooliganism – it was not people who were known to the police.

“We are not that worried – if you consider the huge amount of people partying peacefully in Germany you must regard this as an exception.

“This can happen at any kind of party. We don’t want to reduce the seriousness of this but we must compliment the police for their immediate intervention.”