VIDEO: I knew I was going to get done over - attacked PC

8:54am Friday 16th May 2008

• Play Video

A hero police officer has told how he was kicked and stamped on by a rampaging mob of more than 20 Glasgow Rangers fans during the shocking violence that marred the Uefa Cup Final in Manchester.

Pc Mick Regan, 47, was battered on the ground as he slipped after helping a colleague under attack from bottle-throwing fans.

In dramatic scenes captured by police cameras, the former Territorial Army corporal is seen being kicked, punched and stamped on by the gang of football thugs.

He was lucky to escape with only sore ribs and a puncture wound to his arm - after being dragged from the fray by a Good Samaritan.

The officer from Offerton, Stockport, who is based at Longsight, has now told how the shocking scenes were the worst violence he has witnessed in his 23-year career.

PC Regan's ordeal began as Rangers took on Zenit St Petersburg in the UEFA Cup Final at Eastlands.

Trouble first flared after a technical fault meant up to 20,000 fans gathered at Piccadilly Gardens to watch the match were left with no picture.

Following the match violent clashes continued along Market Street, Oldham Street and Newton Street with riot squads sent in to try and control the crowds.

PC Regan said: "I was on duty for the public order side of the game and from what I could I hear from my radio on the way into town it was going mad, bottles being thrown, that sort of thing.

"Me and my colleagues were told to go to Wetherspoons at Piccadilly Gardens.

"From the outset we were bombarded with bottles and cans as we tried to contain and disperse the crowd.

"It was unbelievable when we got there; it was already in motion. It was frightening, on a different scale from any other match I have worked in my 23-year career. It seemed the vast majority were drunk and they just wanted to cause trouble.

"A lot of the fans were okay and just asking for directions but there was a large hard core."

As the trouble wore on PC Regan and colleagues found themselves being pushed down Newton Street by a solid mass' of snarling fans hurling missiles.

"At first I thought we could hold them," he said. "Then we made a tactical withdraw and they overran us. The crowd was extremely hostile and made up of men and women of all ages.

"The whole time we were there officers were getting hit with bottles. I saw one lad whose ear was bleeding so he was taken out of the game.

"As we were forced back down Newton Street I saw another of my colleagues being attacked by six or seven fans and I went to help him.

"Then a lad with a bottle threw it at me from a distance of about three or four feet and it hit me on the left elbow.

"I remember moving backwards to try and avoid being hit again but next thing I was on the floor.

"My initial reaction was we're in trouble here' and I saw that the other officers had been pushed back towards Oldham Road by the crowd and I was on my own.

"I could feel the crowd kicking me in the side but my body armour was protecting me. I could see their feet in front of me even though my head was on the floor.

"I wanted to curl up but I remember saying to myself I have got to get up'.

"I managed to get up but I'd lost my baton and had nothing to defend myself with. I started to try and run - I'm a fit lad and I do marathons but I think I must have been winded because I couldn't run properly even though I knew I was being followed by the mob."

In a remarkable twist of fate PC Regan was saved from serious injury by a fan he thought was going to attack him.

He said: "I saw two lads coming from my right; I thought they were going to have a go. But one of them shouted at me saying I'm British Army, I'm a medic. He grabbed me by the collar and he propelled me up the street.

"Then one of our vans came round the corner, he threw me in the back of it and off he went. Thank God.

"If they had not come along at that point I'd have been in big trouble. I'd have been seriously injured. I knew I was going to get done over."

PC Regan, who was on his first shift back at work after a two-week holiday in America, then went to a rendezvous point at Great Ancoats Street. He said he didn't think he was hurt.

He said: "I felt okay and I would have gone back but we didn't need to be redeployed so my night was over."

Back at Longsight Police Station, PC Regan got patched up by the police doctor. But his arm bled through the night so in the morning he went to hospital to have the wound dressed.

"You take it as it comes," he said. "The body armour protected me from the kicks and the injury to my arm is only a puncture wound from the bottle.

"I feel lucky, whoever that army lad was he wants a medal," he said.

He said he is unlikely to ever forget the battle of Piccadilly'.

"Never in my career have I been in a situation like that. It was unbelievable. I can't tar them all with the same brush. The fans we met at the rendezvous point who were coming away from the stadium were as good as gold but the people who were kicking off were drunk and out for trouble.

"I know they will say it's a minority but a few thousand is a big minority."

Shakers News