About 200 rioters, many of them English soccer fans, clashed with police in southern Portugal early yesterday.

　　Fourteen people were arrested and 16 injured in Albufeira, authorities said.

　　Officers from the GNR paramilitary force, some on horseback, intervened after fighting broke out in an area of bars and clubs frequented by British citizens on holiday.

　　The running battles lasted around two hours as police were pelted with bottles and chairs.

　　Four of the injured remained in hospital at midday yesterday, one with a broken hand, said Assuncao Martinez, head of the area's health administration. None of the injuries was serious.

　　Police in Albufeira said 12 of those arrested were Britons, one Russian and one Portuguese. They were expected to appear in court later on yesterday.

　　"It started with arguments between football fans who had been drinking a lot, and between fans and bar owners in various points in the area," GNR spokesman Manuel Jorge said.

　　"At 1.30am police felt it necessary to go in force to restore order."

　　Soccer's European Championship involving 16 national teams is taking place in Portugal this month. Yesterday's unrest was the first serious disturbance.

　　One English fan, Adam Sibley from Peterborough, said the Portuguese police over-reacted.

　　"There was a bit of trouble with a French fan who had a German flag wrapped round him but that calmed down. It was when they started to try to clear the bars that it all went off.

　　"We were running away down the street and some spotter jumped on my mate and took him away. I suppose he will be sent home," he told Reuters. British police have supplied officers, called "spotters," who can pick out known hooligans.

　　Eyewitnesses said the troublemakers tried to provoke police.

　　"An officer was in front of him (an England fan) and he kept on taunting him with the (English) flag," Nuno Andrade, a bar employee, told private TSF radio.

　　"Right then the flag fell to the ground and some of the English thought that it was the police officer that pulled it down. The chairs started to rain down."

　　When police reinforcements in riot gear and on horseback moved in to quell the disturbance, rioters pelted them with bottles, chairs and glasses.

　　"A lot of the rioters were apparently England fans but there were others involved," Jorge said.

　　UEFA, European soccer's governing body, has warned the English Football Association that their team could be expelled from the competition if their fans cause major trouble.

　　A UEFA spokesman said no action would be taken against England over the violence in Albufeira which was being regarded as an isolated incident.

　　England fans have a history of hooliganism. They rioted in Marseille during the World Cup in France in 1998 and clashed with police during Euro 2000 in Belgium and the Netherlands.

　　Thousands of England supporters, many taking family holidays, have congregated on the Algarve coast, with Albufeira and its bars, cafes and restaurants a popular spot.