‘IT WAS like a warzone’- A Weymouth man was caught up in the chaos at Euro 2016.

Gary Harvey, 31, travelled to France with his friends to watch England play Russia in Marseille, France, on Saturday evening.

He arrived in the city the previous day and was staying near the Old Port.

It was on Friday evening Gary claimed he and his friends first experienced trouble in the city.

Gary claims England fans had been singing and drinking at bars by the Old Port before the violence started.

Gary said: “The local French hooligans came down and started antagonising [fans], throwing bottles, throwing chairs, and throwing tables.

“The English fans retaliated and stood their ground. Tear gas was deployed pretty much immediately. Everyone dispersed to the square just by the port.

“They must have known that’s where we going to.

“There were more French hooligans and Russian hooligans. As soon as we went into the square they set upon everyone with tables, chairs [and] bottles.

“It was like a warzone to be honest.”

Gary said the experience was ‘quite frightening’ and tear gas had entered their eyes and throats.

He said: “These guys they had masks, black t-shirts and they had what almost looked like MMA fighting gloves on as well.”

Later that evening, Gary and other England fans were able to find somewhere else to congregate safely.

Gary said there was trouble again near the Old Port again on match day, just a few hours before the game kicked off.

He said: “If you didn’t make yourself proactive, you were almost OK. It was the people who retaliated or were antagonised. It was the isolated people who were getting hit. It was chaos, absolute chaos.”

Gary said he didn’t see any violence between England fans during the three days he was in France.

Commenting on his reaction to the violence, he said: “I didn’t retaliate at all. We were just running to as many different places as we could. “ Gary and his friends were able to get to the game safely, watching England draw 1-1 with Russia. However, the game was marred by violence at the end of the match.

Gary said: “The Russian fans behind the goal they broke the barriers and charged towards the fans. I wasn’t among that. All you could see was England fans leaping over the fences, leaping over the barriers, genuinely fearing for their lives. It looked horrific from where we were.”

Gary said he and his friends made sure to keep their friends and family up to date during the trip, before arriving back home on Monday.

Despite raising concerns about the security arrangements, Gary said: “It didn’t put me off anything. I’d go again. I had an absolute fantastic time.” Even though it was scary, it was an experience.

“I really enjoyed myself and had a fantastic time at the game.”

RUSSIA have been given a suspended disqualification from Euro 2016 for crowd disorder.

The Russian Football Union has also been fined 115,000 euros for events that occurred during the match on Saturday.

Russia was charged yesterday by UEFA in relation to offences of crowd disturbances, use of fireworks and racist behaviour inside the Stade Velodrome.

This ruling only relates to incidents that occurred inside the stadium.

UEFA confirmed the suspension would be lifted if incidents of a similar nature occurred inside the stadium at any of Russia’s remaining matches.

Six England fans were jailed on Monday in relation to violence in Marseille.
UEFA has also threatened to kick England out of the tournament if further trouble escalates.

Manager Roy Hodgson and captain Wayne Rooney have appealed to fans ahead of Thursday’s game against Wales to stay out of trouble.

Rooney asked those without tickets not to travel to the game, which will take place in Lens.