AN ENGLAND fan from Winsford who was caught up in the Euro 2016 violence in France has described the ‘orchestrated fighting’ and the ‘appalling’ policing he experienced.

Craig Batin, 46, from Ledward Street, was in Marseille with friends when England were playing Russia in Euro 2016 on Saturday, June 11.

He is now back home in Winsford and spoke to the Guardian about being caught in the middle of a clash between English fans, Russian fans and French police, which led to England being warned of disqualification by EUFA.

Craig’s life-long dream of watching England in a major tournament, which cost around £1,000, consisted of the Winsford man being teargassed, hit by a police baton, and being left with no choice but to leave the city before planned.

Craig said: “We were in the harbour area with all the England fans and we’d been there for about seven hours. But when the police wanted to break the group up they just did it with tear gas.

“There was no trouble they just wanted to break us apart so they tear gassed us. Then everybody was running off in different directions to get away from it and that’s when the altercations happened.

“The fighting that took place was orchestrated and the French police did not have a clue other than to react when the English fans reacted.

“The harbour has been laid siege to by the ultra and Russian fans from every alley conceivable, while the French police penned the English to the waterfront with tear gas with nowhere else to go other than through their ranks causing clashes.

“There were people running off into the direction of Russians and then getting attacked and then people deciding to go the other way towards the police like me and getting hit by them. I made my way past the police and got hit with a baton.

“There was no way you could stay in Marseille, we had to move on. It was my first time going watching England away and I’ve wanted to for a long time, but I wouldn’t go again. It was just ridiculous. We planned this trip a long time ago and we went to have fun but there was simply no fun to be had in the end.

“France hold your head in shame, your policing was appalling, your planning was ill conceived and your implementation was inadequate to say the least.”