St Etienne fans evacuated from Nice stadium amid crowd trouble

Nice (France) (AFP) - Around 200 Saint-Etienne fans were evacuated from Nice's Allianz Riviera stadium on the Cote D'Azur on Sunday following crowd trouble, AFP's reporter on the scene said.

The away fans had come under fire from sections of the home support, who had torn up seats and were throwing them at their rival supporters.

Police formed a protective guard around the away fans before evacuating them from the stadium.

According to unconfirmed sources, the bus carrying Saint-Etienne's fans to the ground had been bombarded with stones as it arrived at the stadium.

Even so, the match between Nice and Saint-Etienne kicked off on time at 5pm local time (1600 GMT).