Fans fight in stands during France vs Israel in stadium's lowest ever attendance

After incidents involving supporters at Ajax vs Maccabi Tel Aviv last Thursday in the Europa League, security was upped for the League A clash at the Stade de France.

This resulted in just 20,000 supporters at the 80,000-capacity stadium in Paris - the lowest attendance it's ever recorded for a football match.

RMC Sport claim that a massive 4,000 police were employed for the fixture which saw whistling of the Israeli national anthem before kick-off.

Then, minutes after the first whistle was blown, fights broke out in the stadium's north curve with around 50 individuals involved.

Stewards intervened to create a cordon and things were calmed down after around two minutes.

read more on france

Why Kylian Mbappe is not playing for France as Didier Deschamps cites 'one-off decision'

Former France international handed two-year suspended prison sentence

"There was the start of a fight. We were extremely reactive, so the incident was very quickly contained," Paris police chief Laurent Nunez said, speaking to broadcaster France 2.

Nunez confirmed two arrests have been made within the stadium following the fight, however, the real number is actually much greater.

Police sources told the AFP that around 40 arrests were made in total, with half of those taken into custody for 'nothing serious'.

The Bobigny prosecutor's office later confirmed to the news agency: "We have taken 29 people into custody, including the two for violence between supporters."

Most read in Football

San Marino create history as they secure stunning Nations League promotion

The extreme lengths Arsenal went to to hide Martin Odegaard's injury are revealed

Liverpool cult hero exiled at Serie A giants forced to stay due to tax reasons

How Man United could line up against Ipswich as Amorim to drop three stars in first game

Several Israel and Palestine flags could be seen throughout the game, while there so far haven't been any injuries reported from the fighting.

The minister of the interior, Bruno Retailleau, and Paris police chief, Nunez were both in attendance, with the latter reassuring attendees in the days leading up to the match.

"I want to reassure those who are listening to us and at the same time send a message of firmness," he said.

"We will have the means to be extremely responsive to prevent any disturbance of public order, whether during the match, in the vicinity of the match or on the spectators' path. We will not tolerate any excesses.

"We are able to secure the Stade de France, which hosted the Olympic Games. We have learned the lessons of what happened for the Champions League final in May 2022 [between Liverpool and Real Madrid]."

French President Emmanuel Macron also attended the match and said beforehand: "France is organising a sporting, cultural, intellectual event that it intends to organise and that it wants to organise.

"We are doing this by protecting artists, athletes, intellectuals, by allowing everyone to experience these events.

"We will not give in to this bad wind of anti-Semitism that is blowing across the world."

On the pitch, the match finished 0-0 with already-qualified France facing Italy needing a win and a three-goal swing to top the group.