‘Mindless handful’ threw flares and glass at Dev Green England screening

Glass bottles and flares were thrown at Devonshire Green last night during the England semi final screening.

An estimated 8,000 people attended the bring-your-own-booze screening of England's 2-1 World Cup loss to Croatia.

Sheffield City Council insisted preparation for the event was sufficient, blaming "a handful of mindless people" for incidents that took place.

A number of fans and Lord Mayor Magid Magid were among those who stayed behind to tidy up litter, and the park was free from rubbish by lunchtime after a further clean up operation today.

One fan told us: "There were too many 15 and 16 year olds who couldn’t handle their drink, throwing cans and causing havoc.

"Other than that it was good, but security didn’t do anything either."

Social media users complained of "zero organisation and people throwing flares", as videos surfaced of smoke bombs being let off and bottles, including glass ones, being thrown.

Several people said that they had left the screening at half time because of this.

Images also showed the mess left on the Green, mostly discarded bottles and empty cans.

Sheffield City Council said in a statement:

"We had 45 stewards in place, we had the police, and we had 8,000 people in the venue.

"We were fully policed up, fully stewarded up, it's just a handful of mindless people that decided to try and ruin the evening for everybody else."

Lord Mayor Magid Magid gave his thanks to "all the amazing Sheffield City Council staff for their efforts and to the wonderful people of Sheffield."

Featured image credit: @mrymgrlll on Twitter.