A video is circulating online purporting to show British football fans jeering and chanting as they throw coins at children begging in Lille.
The clip shows a circle of fans standing around outside a bar, with a number of young children in front of them.
The men appear to throw coins on the ground for the children to scrabble for while the adults chant and cheer.
This is how u kick someone who's already on the floor.
— Kun Fayakun كن فيكون (@schumelli1) June 16, 2016
English fans throwing coins at refugee kids.#ENG#EURO2016 pic.twitter.com/S4RD33Dgop
Separately, a Financial Times journalist in Lille reported that English fans persuaded a young boy who was begging to chug beer for payment.
Michael Stothard, the Paris correspondent for the Financial Times, claimed that a group of England supporters said they would give a boy money, but only in exchange for drinking a beer.
Stothard, who judged the boy to be about seven, described the scene on Twitter.
“England fans in Lille just got begging 7 year old to down a whole beer in exchange for some coins,” he wrote. “He downed the bottle in five gulps to raucous cheers. Then was handed money.”
England fans in Lille just got begging 7 year old to down a whole beer in exchange for some coins. #EURO2016 pic.twitter.com/XeaeaSzb3G
— Michael Stothard (@MStothard) June 15, 2016
@sonsofmalcolm But he threw the cigarette on the ground and stamped it out. The fans looked disappointed.
— Michael Stothard (@MStothard) June 16, 2016
England take on Wales in Lille at 2pm this afternoon, with reports of baton charges and tear gas used in skirmishes between police and football fans last night.
