Germany is ramping up security ahead of the start of Euro 2024, with England’s tie against Serbia seen by police as high risk.
The heightened security in Gelsenkirchen for England’s opening group game on Sunday means fans will be served lower alcohol beer in the stadium and will not be able to drink in the stands.
Policing will be more challenging as UEFA has asked for barriers to be removed and both sides will be seated close together, with two-thirds of tickets going to mixed areas.
“I think it’s a very high-risk game because of the history, because of the hooligans both sides have,” Chief Inspector Christof Burghardt told Sky News.
“Serbia has many hooligans. The English guys, with alcohol, they are sometimes very aggressive. So it’s a great job to do this, to prepare, so that hopefully nothing will happen.”
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England will play against Serbia on 16 June in their first game of the tournament
Ahead of the game, we joined officers at a league match in Gelsenkirchen which they used as a test run.
At the gates, fans were randomly checked for weapons and booze.
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Inside, police watched over the crowd at the potentially volatile clash, on alert for troublemakers.
Using CCTV to surveil the crowd, they spotted a group of masked ultras gathering in the stands and carefully monitored them.
More than 300,000 British fans are expected to travel to Germany for the tournament, making it their highest attendance since Euro 2016 in France.
Image: England fans will be cheering on stars such as Harry Kane and Kyle Walker in Germany. File pic: PA
Germany is hoping to avoid a repeat of riots that year which marred the event and resulted in more than 1,500 arrests.
Fans who breach German public order laws have been warned they could be marched to a cashpoint to pay an on-the-spot fine.
British police have been sharing intelligence and will send the largest deployment of officers since 2016.
So-called police spotters will be on hand to help tackle antisocial behaviour and drink-fuelled violence, trying to talk to fans before things get out of hand.
Many of the worst offenders have been stopped from travelling altogether.
“We currently have approximately 2,000 people on the banning order which basically means they can’t travel to tournaments and they can’t go into football stadiums,” explains Chief Superintendent Colette Rose, from UK Football Policing.
“Over 2,000 troublemakers away from football has made it a much safer place. When you play that out over the last eight to ten years the behaviour of football fans has been far, far better. We have no arrests in Qatar and we had very, very few arrests in the tournaments preceding that.”
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Policing the Euros is a complex challenge because it’s not just about keeping the 2.7 million fans safe in the 10 stadiums where the games are being played, there are also the 12 million in the fan zones to look after.
Germany’s interior minister, Nancy Faeser, said everything is being done to ensure the event is safe.
“You can never 100% guarantee security but we are well-prepared and remain very vigilant,” she said.
Some 22,000 federal police officers will be on duty every day of the tournament.
Security is being stepped up at borders and train stations with the support of officers from other countries and 16,000 volunteers.
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In Thuringia, where England have their base camp, police have also been doing drills.
In one scenario, riot police practised stopping hooligans armed with flares and weapons on a train.
They admitted the tense global situation makes security more complex.
“In my opinion, the risk is definitely higher,” said Police Director Frank Haring. “Because of current political events in Ukraine, in Russia and the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, terrorist groups could potentially use events like the European Championship for an attack.”
On Friday, police arrested a man at Cologne airport on suspicion of supporting Islamic State. He’s being held in custody.
In a separate incident, a police officer was killed and five other people were injured when an alleged Islamist extremist carried out a knife attack in Mannheim at the end of May.
Despite the risk, Germany says it is ready and can protect the millions of football fans coming here.
Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has said it will “pause” shipments to the US as the British car firm works to “address the new trading terms” of Donald Trump’s tariffs.
The US president has introduced a 25% levy on all foreign cars imported into the country, which came into force on Thursday.
JLR, one of the country’s biggest carmakers, exported about 38,000 cars to the US in the third quarter of 2024 – almost equal to the amount sold to the UK and the EU combined.
In a statement on Saturday, a spokesperson for the company behind the Jaguar, Land Rover and Range Rover brands said: “The USA is an important market for JLR’s luxury brands.
“As we work to address the new trading terms with our business partners, we are taking some short-term actions including a shipment pause in April, as we develop our mid- to longer-term plans.”
The company released a statement last week before Mr Trump announced a “baseline” 10% tariff on goods from around the world, which kicked in on Saturday morning, on what he called “liberation day”.
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JLR reassured customers its business was “resilient” and “accustomed to changing market conditions”.
“Our priorities now are delivering for our clients around the world and addressing these new US trading terms,” the firm said.
Trading across the world has been hit by Mr Trump’s tariff announcement at the White House on Wednesday.
All but one stock on the FTSE 100 fell on Friday – with Rolls-Royce, banks and miners among those to suffer the sharpest losses.
Cars are the top product exported from the UK to the US, with exports worth £8.3bn in the year to the end of September 2024, according to data from the Office for National Statistics.
For UK carmakers, the US is the second largest export market behind the European Union.
Industry groups have previously warned the tariffs will force firms to rethink where they trade, while a report by thinktank the Institute for Public Policy Research said more than 25,000 car manufacturing jobs in the UK could be at risk.
Two people have died following a fire at a caravan site near Skegness, Lincolnshire Police have said.
In a statement, officers said they were called at 3.53am on Saturday to a report of a blaze at Golden Beach Holiday Park in the village of Ingoldmells.
Fire and rescue crews attended the scene, and two people were found to have died.
They were reported to be a 10-year-old girl and a 48-year-old man.
The force said the victims’ next of kin have been informed and will be supported by specially trained officers.
Officers are trying to establish the exact cause of the blaze.
“We are at the very early stages of our investigation and as such we are keeping an open mind,” the force said.
A 15-year-old boy has died after “getting into difficulty” in a lake in southeast London, police say.
Officers and paramedics were called shortly after 3pm on Friday to Beckenham Place Park in Lewisham.
The Metropolitan Police said a boy “was recovered from the lake” at around 10.42pm the same day.
“He was taken to hospital where he was sadly pronounced dead. His death is being treated as unexpected but not believed to be suspicious,” according to the force.
The boy’s family has been told and are being supported by specialist officers.
The force originally said the child was 16 years old, but has since confirmed his age as 15.
In the earlier statement, officers said emergency services carried out a search and the park was evacuated.
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Image: Emergency teams were called to Beckenham Place Park on Friday afternoon
Beckenham Place Park, which borders the London borough of Bromley, covers around 240 acres, according to the park’s website.
The lake is described as 285 metres long, reaching depths of up to 3.5 metres.
It is designed as a swimming lake for open-water swimming and paddle boarding.
A London Ambulance Service spokesperson said on Friday: “We were called at 3.02pm this afternoon to reports of a person in the water.
“We sent resources to the scene, including an ambulance crew, an incident response officer and members of our hazardous area response team.”
Emergency teams have not explained how the boy entered the water, or whether he was accompanied by others.