Reporter Chris Parvin was caught up in a terrifying soccer riot as he drove home through Swansea.

Chris, who works for the South Wales Evening Post, was sandwiched between police horses, a police helicopter and uniformed police in riot gear – and a mob of hooligans.

He wrote a first-person piece for the Post as part of its coverage of the incident.

He said: “One minute I was sitting in a cosy warm car with my mother, laughing and joking about the play we had just seen at the Grand, and the next we were trapped in the middle of a terrifying riot.

“In seconds what seemed like half a dozen police horses and two dozen men with batons drawn had formed a tight rank at the lights in front of the pub, facing east.

“With an animal roar the crowd raised makeshift weapons of wood and charged like something out of Braveheart.

“There must have been 250 of them and they lobbed their weapons straight at the police.

“The air was full of masonry and estate agent signs, all eerily luminated by light from above as they flew through the air, to be deflected by helmets, shields and padding.”

It was then the crowd turned and fled towards them. Chris told his mum to get down in the car and cover her head, while he searched inside the car for an umbrella to defend themselves with.

But the mob bolted in the other direction just as suddenly – as a new group of riot police shepherded them back again.

Chris wrote: “It all seemed to take an hour but it could only have been minutes before the road was clear ahead so I stuck my foot down and got out of there.”

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