Leeds fan seriously ill after Milan stabbing

A Leeds United football fan was seriously ill in hospital last night after having emergency surgery for stab wounds to his face and groin inflicted during a clash with rival fans in Italy.

A Leeds United football fan was seriously ill in hospital last night after having emergency surgery for stab wounds to his face and groin inflicted during a clash with rival fans in Italy.

On the eve of the club's Champions League match with AC Milan, violence between rival supporters led to Dyson Lee, 31, from Barnsley, Yorkshire, being stabbed with a broken bottle.

The violence flared just after midnight yesterday when a group of Leeds fans were involved in a running battle with a similar-sized group of local men in Corso Como, a street full of bars near the Brera district of the city.

The fans are alleged by police to have goaded the Italian men into chasing them by chanting and singing. During the resulting violence, Mr Lee is believed to have been stabbed after he slipped while trying to escape the men.

A spokesman for the Foreign Office in London said members of Mr Lee's family had been flown to Milan to be with him.

The incident comes just seven months after two Leeds United fans, Christopher Loftus, 35, and Kevin Speight, 40, were killed hours before United played Galatasaray in Istanbul in a Uefa Cup game.

Police said seven British fans had so far been arrested, four of whom appeared in court yesterday. They were named as Michael Giuny, 37, Darren Woolard, 25, Simon Harris, 29, and Paul Inman, 26. Each was given a six-month suspended jail sentence, banned from Italian stadiums for six months and forced to remain in cells until after the match.