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The England football team was last night involved in investigations into allegations that an aircraft carrying them back from Hong Kong was damaged.

Scotland Yard said yesterday that: "Police at Heathrow are investigating an allegation of damage to an aeroplane which was received from Cathay Pacific airline." The airline issued a statement confirming that an incident happened on flight CX251 from Hong Kong to London Heathrow yesterday morning and said it had launched an inquiry. It was confirmed that the England squad was on board. Later last night a spokesman said: "During the flight some damage was done to personal passenger facilities ... Two personal TV sets and a table were involved. At no time was there any incident involving the safety of the passengers or the flight."

The allegations were to be investigated by England manager Terry Venables "at the earliest opportunity", Steve Double, a Football Association spokesman, said. He said: "if any action needs to be taken, it will be". Mr Double confirmed that FA chief executive Graham Kelly received a fax from Cathay Pacific yesterday: "Cathay Pacific have asked us to look at it." He refused to go into details of the nature of the allegations. Peter Victor