England fan dies in Lisbon knife horror

Published on Tuesday 22 June 2004 14:16

AN English fan was stabbed to death in Lisbon early today when a pickpocket targeted fans celebrating England’s victory in the Euro 2004 tournament.

Witnesses said the killer struck at around 4am as hundreds of supporters were toasting England’s 4-2 triumph over Croatia.

Portuguese police said a 30-year-old Ukrainian man was being held in connection with the killing. The victim, a 28-year-old man, has not been named.

Witness Haskell Noah, 35, a delivery driver from Golders Green, north west London, said: "It was about four in the morning and there were about 200 England fans sitting around at tables having a drink and a laugh.

"This guy had been coming up and down for hours trying to take people’s wallets and everyone was fed up with him. We’d been telling the police about him but they didn’t do anything.

"An England guy pushed him away, he went away and came back about two minutes later and went straight over to a different guy just sitting at a table and stabbed him."

Mr Noah said there was an immediate commotion and the stabbed fan fell to the ground.

"A girl was screaming and police came running across to arrest the attacker as he ran away. They got him on the ground and got the handcuffs on him."

Cesar Coutinho, a 24-year-old Portuguese man who is studying international law at the University of Central England in Birmingham, added: "Everybody was here, celebrating. English people, people from Croatia, then suddenly there was a problem.

"The guy came from behind him and stabbed him. His friends gave him first aid on the ground and it took about 15 minutes for the ambulance to arrive.

"It was terrible to see the stabbing. The guy came up from behind him, swung his arm round in front of him and stabbed him in the heart.

"Up until then everyone had been having a great time, I suppose it only takes one bad guy to ruin it for everybody."

Undercover and uniformed Portuguese police were close by and chased the Ukrainian and arrested him immediately.

The injured fan was taken to Lisbon’s Sao Joseph Hospital after the stabbing but died from his injuries.

The Foreign Office in London confirmed that a British man had been killed but was unable to give any further information.

Police spokeswoman Isabel Canelas said the suspect was due to appear in court later today charged with causing death by stabbing.

Earlier reports suggested a Croatian man had been arrested over the attack. However, police sources later confirmed that the man was from the Ukraine, which does not have a team in the tournament.

Other England fans arriving in the centre of the city from their hotels this morning were shocked to hear what had happened.

Steve Minney, 49, of Wakefield, West Yorkshire, who works for a pub company, said: "It was terrible to hear about this.

"The atmosphere last night was just fantastic, there was no hassle of any kind."

England fans dominated the 65,000-capacity Estadio da Luz last night, with an estimated 40,000 supporters making the trip to Lisbon. Thousands of England fans poured into Rossio Square after the victory, which booked them a place in the quarter- finals.

There had been fears that a hard-core of Croatian fans were looking for trouble, but the post-match celebrations in the city were largely peaceful.

There were no other reports of any trouble after the game in Portugal.

In Albufeira on the Algarve, there was a party atmosphere on the now notorious Strip.

The mood was in complete contrast to nights last week, when there were violent clashes between England hooligans and Portuguese riot police.

David Swift, Deputy Chief Constable of Staffordshire Police and the senior British police officer advising the Portuguese, said there had been no other incidents of note in the last 24 hours, and no arrests.

Meanwhile, seven arrests were made for "low-level disorder" across Hertfordshire last night.

Officers were also called to disperse a crowd of around 200 people from the Old Pond area in Cheshunt, which was the scene of similar disturbances after England’s defeat by France more than a week ago.