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Hamburger SV fans at a home game in the Second Bundesliga (symbolic image)
Photo: Philipp Szyza / imago images / Philipp Szyza
On Saturday evening, a large police force stopped a regional train carrying hundreds of Hamburger SV football fans and searched it for hours. Around 620 people were checked at Hamburg-Bergedorf train station, as a federal police spokesman announced on Sunday night.
During the operation, the officers were reportedly looking for suspected violent perpetrators who were said to have clashed with Borussia Dortmund supporters in September last year. In addition, there were also “physical attacks” in the form of bottle throwing at the main train station there on Saturday evening after the HSV second division game in Rostock (2:2).
Around 400 emergency services from the Federal Police and the Hamburg State Police Directorate were deployed to control the football fans. According to the information, they began searching the RE1 regional train on which the fans were traveling from Rostock to Hamburg shortly after 8 p.m. The action lasted more than six hours, during which the fans had to stay on the train until they were checked. The large-scale controls resulted in numerous significant delays in regional transport, as Deutsche Bahn announced on X (formerly Twitter).
In total, the police were looking for 60 people who were said to have been involved in the riots on September 16, 2023 and who had not yet been identified, said the head of the Hamburg Federal Police Inspectorate, Jan Müller. At that time, HSV and BVB fans attacked each other in the Mannheim train station and there were injuries on both sides. During the operation on Saturday evening, the police were able to identify at least 15 of the 60 people wanted, said Müller.
Final figures were not yet available early Sunday morning. There were no arrests and all fans were able to continue traveling after their personal details had been checked, said another police spokesman after the control operation had ended.
ara/dpa