BERLIN: Around 40 English football fans were involved in violent clashes in Duesseldorf's city centre as they watched Thursday's UEFA Nations League defeat to the Netherlands, police in Germany reported on Friday.
A police spokesperson told AFP that the violence, which comes just days after England fans were involved in clashes with riot police in Porto, could have been premeditated.
In a statement on Friday morning, the Duesseldorf police said that they had made 16 arrests and that four people had been injured as fans threw chairs, tables and beer bottles at each other in a square in the city's old town.
"At around 20.30 on Thursday, there were clashes involving around 40 fans from various British clubs," said the statement, adding that "significant damage" had been caused.
Police said they had arrested 16 men between the ages of 32 and 56, adding that some of those arrested came from Newcastle and Liverpool and that none of them were resident in Germany.
"On the basis of witness statements and information gleaned at the scene, we can say with reasonable certainty that only English fans were involved," a spokesperson told AFP.
Police were investigating the possibility that the fans had come to Duesseldorf for the sole purpose of engaging in violence, the spokesperson said.
He added that some of those arrested had travelled to Duesseldorf from Porto, while others had come from the UK.