London: Disappointment, alcohol and warm weather sent hundreds of soccer fans rampaging through a number of English cities on Sunday after their side’s last-gasp loss to France in Euro 2004, police said.

At least 49 people have so far been arrested for various offences from Croydon, south London to Wakefield in the north. The violence brought damaged shops, overturned cars and stand-offs with police.

There were no suggestions organised hooliganism was behind Sunday’s trouble. “The most likely combination is alcohol, the heat and the disappointment about... the England match... because the disturbances began almost immediately as the match finished,” said a police inspector.

In the worst incident about 400 fans confronted officers in Croydon while there were serious outbreaks of disorder in central, eastern and northern England. There were 12 arrests in Birmingham, though a spokeswoman for West Midlands Police played down the figure.

“As far as we are concerned 12 people is not a huge amount,” she said. A spokeswoman said police were still investigating the incident in Croydon but the violence seemed to involve a minority of people reacting to Zinedine Zidane’s double strike in injury time. It was in contrast to events in Lisbon where fans were well behaved, despite the high emotion, and supporters drew praise from Portuguese police.

(Reuters)