Herts family knifed in hooligan attack

21 October 2010, 13:40 | Updated: 21 October 2010, 13:59

Father and son from Hertfordshire slashed by roving gang of troublemakers ahead of match in Italy.

Police say Gary Brown, 50, from Hertfordshire was cut with a knife, and his 17 year-old son Adam was bruised in the attack.

23 year-old son Daniel wasn't hurt, but their family friend, 23 year-old Ross Hazeldene was also injured with a knife wound.

Italian police have admitted gangs of Napoli's hardcore Ultra fans went out hunting Liverpool supporters to attack in the city last night.

There were a number of incidents ahead of the club's Europa League match at the Stadio San Paolo tonight, which resulted in the stabbings, one Italian was also taken to hospital.

All stab victims are said not to have had serious injuries, and were all discharged after receiving treatment - but it's prompted police to step-up security ahead of the game.

Three arrests have been made after the attacks last night and police recovered an array of weapons and Ultra paraphernalia from the home of one.

Among the weapons seized were a baseball bat, several five-foot long aluminium bars with numerous strategically-placed screws protruding and a six-foot wooden plank.

"Ultras went out seeking English fans, absolutely'' said Filippo Bonfiglio, head of DIGOS, the local department which deals with terrorism and political activity.

"There are groups of violent supporters here in Naples so we could hypothesise something like this would happen but it was impossible to prevent every attack everywhere."'