Warsaw's mayor on Saturday
praised the safe party atmosphere in the city for the opening
night of Euro 2012, during which some 140,000 people passed
through the fan zone and police reported only a handful of
incidents.

"We have three weeks to go of course but we had huge crowds
and football fans enjoyed themselves in a carnival atmosphere,"
Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz told a news conference.

Warsaw's giant fan zone around the striking Palace of
Culture and Science accommodates 100,000 fans, and was full on
Friday for Poland's 1-1 draw with Greece and Russia's 4-1
victory over the Czech Republic.

Police reported only seven people were taken to a "sobering
up" station.

"Warsaw was fantastic yesterday. We should all be proud. We
faced a great test and I think we passed it," said Maciej
Karczynski, police spokesman.

Police detained four topless activists from Femen, a
Ukrainian women's rights group, who took off their tops by the
stadium to reveal the words "Fuck Euro 2012" and let off fire
extinguishers. They were fined then released.

The feminists complain that the Championship will lead to
increased prostitution in host cities.

In Wroclaw stadium, venue of the second Euro 2012 match,
four stewards needed hospital treatment after being attacked by
Russian fans after the Russia-Czech Republic game, the head of
the Polish company in charge of tournament coordination said.

One person suffered a broken arm in Wroclaw when two trams
collided because of fans blocking the tracks, Poland's national
PAP news agency reported.

Warsaw will host its next match on Tuesday when Poland play
Russia.

Mayor Gronkiewicz-Waltz said she would meet Russia
representatives later on Saturday after they requested
assistance for a possible march through the city.

Warsaw authorities have said they had no plans to reject any
request to stage a march on Tuesday, a national holiday in
Russia, despite concerns that it could lead to violence because
of tension between the two neighbours.

The relationship between the two countries, already strained
by their common history, energy and security disputes, has been
further soured by charges from Poland's rightist politicians
that Russia was at least indirectly responsible for a plane
crash that killed Polish president Lech Kaczynski two years ago.

Russia blamed the pilots for the accident in which all 96
passengers and crew perished on April 10, 2010, in western
Russia. Poland said some of the responsibility rested with the
ground controllers at the tiny Smolensk airport.

Via: uk.eurosport.yahoo.com

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