Fans of Scottish football club Celtic are angered by the violent way police acted ahead of last week’s Champions League game against Amsterdam’s Ajax, according to various media reports.

Eight police officers were injured in clashes with fans on Amsterdam’s Dam square but dozens of Celtic fans were also wounded. Fans are now collecting video and photographic evidence to show police overreacted.

The club’s official website warned fans in advance to be careful. ‘We knew the Ajax supporters had a bad reputation but we did not know the same applied to the Dutch police,’ said Jeanette Findlay of the Celtic Trust in the Volkskrant. ‘Scottish police have been shocked by the images.’

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Things started to go wrong when a group of Ajax fans made off with a Scottish flag and were chased by the owner. Police intervened, including dozens in plain clothes, and the situation degenerated into a riot as Celtic fans mistook the police for Ajax supporters.

One video shows how two police officers held a young fan while a third kneed him repeatedly in the stomach. Another shows a man being held while a police dog bites his left leg. One Scot was run over by a police van and broke his leg in three places, the Volkskrant says.

Two men, Padraig Mullan and Andy Vance, remain in custody in the Netherlands and will appear in court in connection with the trouble on November 21. They are charged with using violence against a police officer.

Their lawyer Christian Visser told the Parool the two plan to take legal action against the police for injuries they received, once they are back in Scotland.

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