LGBT+ rights campaign group COC has made a formal complaint to the police after a group of some 20 men disrupted a meeting for teenagers at their offices in Eindhoven on Saturday night.

The group pulled down the rainbow flag and tried to set it on fire. And when a volunteer tried to intervene, he was physically attacked.

The youngsters were at the COC offices for the monthly meeting of support group ‘Young and Out’ for the under 18s. The adults also shouted ‘cancer homo’ at the teenagers.

The COC said in a statement it suspected the men were football supporters who were in town for the PSV Excelsior match which started around an hour after the incident. The campaign group has now asked the local authority, KNVB football association and PSV to a meeting to discuss public safety before and after games.

The organisation also wants football clubs to do more to stamp out homophobic chanting in stadiums.

‘As long as this is tolerated, you normalise such behaviour outside stadiums,’ regional COC chief Benjamin Ector told local media. ‘Someone has to say enough is enough. Someone has to take that first step.’

Meanwhile in Groningen, several people who had been working city drag bar Dorothy’s were attacked by a young man who had been filming another incident outside the club involving homophobic name calling.

In total, he attacked five people, leaving them with ‘sore faces’ and a busted lip, the club said on Instagram.