Footage emerges of London Stadium brawl as West Ham United victory is overshadowed by crowd trouble
West Ham beat Anderlecht 2-1 on Thursday night but the result was largely overshadowed by ugly scenes in the stands at London Stadium.
The Hammers maintained their 100% record in Europe thanks to goals from Said Benrahma and Jarrod Bowen, but all attention was averted to the stands as riot police rushed to intervene.
Anderlecht fans were spotted lighting flares and throwing seats as well as other projectiles at the West Ham fans. A line of police separated the two fanbases, but it hardly stopped the incident from growing out of hand.
Roshane Thomas, journalist for The Athletic, caught the incident via video footage he posted on Twitter.
“Starting to kick off at the London Stadium,” he wrote.
“Flare in the upper tier where some Anderlecht fans are. Seats being thrown between fans in the lower tier of the Sir Trevor Brooking Stand.”
News page West Ham Central also revealed footage of a flare being thrown into the West Ham section.
Disgusting
It was a real shame to see such a joyful night of celebration descend into chaos and panic in the stands.
For the large part, almost all the incidents seemed to stem from the travelling Anderlecht fanbase. They had smuggled in pyrotechnics and flares and were also seen ripping up seats and throwing them over the police.
The crowd violence ended up overshadowing what was a very mature Hammers showing and that is solely down to the violent visitors on Thursday night.
Instead of praising his players and their performance, many of the questions directed at David Moyes following the full-time whistle referred to the events in the stands.
Hopefully adequate police action is taken against any Anderlecht fans who instigated the crowd brawl, and that any damage caused to fans or the London Stadium is minor.
Overall, the entire situation turned ugly quickly and everyone related to West Ham will hope to have seen the back of fan trouble in Europe this season.