Everton Fans Attacked By Up To 100 Hooligans in Lille

Everton fans enjoying an away day in Lille, France were attacked with metal chairs by a swarm of goons, according to the Liverpool ECHO. Everton plays Lille in a Europa League match Thursday night, and with Lille only a five-hour train ride from Merseyside, somewhere around 10,000 fans made the trip to France.

At around 10:30 local time, the gang of up to 100 came up a side street in the city center and pounced unprovoked upon a group of Evertonians who were smoking outside of an Australian bar. The doorman described the chaos:

"There were some Everton fans outside smoking and they got caught cold.

"The hooligans picked up chairs we had stacked up outside and attacked them while others used them to smash windows and try to get inside.

"We had to try and stop the Everton supporters inside from getting out to help because it would have got far worse. I went out to try and drag them in.

"I saw one older English guy being punched by about three Lille hooligans. His face was bleeding badly."I am so sorry for what happened."

The police were on the scene immediately, but unfortunately for the Everton fans their response was to haphazardly tear gas everybody they could.

Some of the Everton fans were trying to explain," [the doorman] added. "They were saying 'There are children inside," but the police were swearing at them and wouldn't listen.

"I saw them spray one Everton fan for no reason. He was just trying to reason with them."

Supposedly some of the attackers filmed their exploits, so video should be popping up soon.

Photo via Jan Kruger/Getty