Manchester police pleased with Rangers riot appeal

Published on Wednesday 28 January 2009 14:48

The names of 29 men allegedly involved in violent riots at last year's Uefa Cup final have been passed to police following a high-profile appeal.

An estimated 150,000 Rangers fans travelled to Manchester for the match between the Glasgow club and Zenit St Petersburg on May 14.

Picture gallery: Images released by Manchester police

But rioting broke out after a screen in the largest fan zone in Piccadilly, central Manchester, failed before kick-off.

It led to hours of running battles between hundreds of drunken hooligans pelting riot police with bottles and glasses.

Greater Manchester Police yesterday released images of 49 rioters and video footage of a policeman being kicked by angry football fans, in a bid to catch those responsible.

Detective Superintendent Geoff Wessell, who is leading the investigation, said: "This part of the operation has so far been extremely encouraging.

"We had nearly 66,000 viewings of the images and 76 online forms have been filled in by members of the public. There have so far been nearly 7,000 unique visitors to the site, which means it has been looked at by people on 7,000 different computers.

"In addition the incident room has received nearly 90 calls and, as a

result of the public's assistance today, we have 29 further names.

"This is a fantastic start to the identity process and I want to thank everyone who has called or visited our website.

"However it is early days and this stage of the operation has a long way to run. We want people to continue looking at the images online and help us put these violent thugs behind bars.

"And don't forget – these people may have worn the colours of Rangers but they could be from anywhere in the UK."

Anyone with information can call the dedicated Operation Gale hotline on 0161 856 4034.