Ten arrests in Serbia after French fan attack

Serbian police have made ten arrests in connection with a violent attack which left a French football fan fighting for his life.

The fan, 28-year-old Brice Taton, was said to be in a “critical” condition after chest surgery on Friday following the assault which took place after French side Toulouse’s 3-2 win over Partizan Belgrade on Thursday.

“The Serb government praises the work of the Interior Ministry which has led to the arrest of ten people,” a government statement confirmed on Saturday.

Taton was one of two Toulouse supporters hurt when 30 Partizan fans stormed into a bar where French fans had congregated and attacked them.

The second victim was hospitalised with less severe injuries and later released.

A Serbian employee of the bar who was injured in the violence was also released from hospital.

One French fan told AFP that the Partizan supporters had attacked their group with baseball bats, bicycle chains and torches.

Serbian President Boris Tadic condemned what he called “wild and barbaric acts by football fans and attacks on foreign citizens” and insisted that the “state must do everything to arrest those who have committed violence and punish them as strictly as possible”.