BRUSSELS, Belgium -- Police arrested a barman who shot and killed a young English soccer fan in a brawl in Brussels' red light district as riot police went on alert Wednesday against rampaging British fans.
The shooting came as more than 1,000 riot police, gendarmes and soldiers were mobilized in Brussels to deal with thousands of English fans arriving for Wednesday night's important game between the Belgian team Anderlecht and London's Tottenham Hotspur.
Police picked up some 50 young Tottenham fans when they tried to wreck a bar in the street where the Tuesday night shooting occurred.
Police cleaned out old stables near the Anderlecht stadium in the west of the city to use as a prison for up to 300 fans, and were closely watching the fans after they get off the train from Ostend.
A spokeman for the state prosecutor's office identified the victim as Irish-born Brian Flanagan, 18, of north London. He said at first it had not been possible to identify him officially, as he was carrying no identity papers, but later his passport was found.
He said the man who fired five shots at Flanagan was Albert Neuckermans, a 32-year-old bar tender in the Brussels red light district near the north station.
'The shooting happened after trouble in the bar,' he said, but added investigators were still trying to establish the exact cause of the fight.
He said the shots were fired on the street and Flanagan was hit by bullets in the stomach and heart regions. Flanagan died in an ambulance taking him to the hospital.
In an effort to minimize damage, Belgian Railways brought out its oldest and most decrepit pre-war rolling stock on the line from Ostend to Brussels. The authorities, with the co-operation of Tottenham officials took every precaution to prevent the rioting and vandalism which has accompanied British soccer fans abroad in the past.
