Tight security at Euro match

Leeds players pause for a moment's silence

The Uefa cup clash between Leeds and Galatasaray has gone ahead amid tight security, despite the deaths of two English fans in the build-up to the game.

Galatasaray won the first leg 2-0 in a tense atmosphere. As the Leeds teams, wearing black armbands, were led on to the pitch, police with raised riot shields encircled the tunnel.

After the match Leeds fans were kept at the stadium. They will be escorted straight to the airport.

The two Leeds fans, Christopher Loftus, 37, and Kevin Speight, were stabbed less than 24 hours before the match, sparking debate over whether it should be called off.

But Uefa officials decided the game should go ahead.

The Leeds players paused for a moment's silence although there was no official minute's silence for the two fans who died.

There were no reports of further unrest as English and Turkish fans gathered at the 23,000-seater stadium.

A huge security operation surrounded the game, with thousands of armed police on duty.

Suspect held

They patrolled around the ground with Alsatian dogs and sat watching from armoured personnel carriers.

Kevin Speight with his son George

The Foreign Office confirmed on Thursday that a man suspected of the killings was being held by Turkish police.

"We understand they have detained 13 to 14 Turkish people whom they suspect were involved in the fighting, and one person under suspicion of the stabbing," said a spokeswoman in London.

A Turkish television channel, NTV, reported that the knifeman had been identified from television pictures.

Sixteen British fans have been deported from Turkey as a result of clashes. Another man remains seriously ill in hospital.

'Dreadful incident'

Prime Minister Tony Blair condemned the "dreadful incident" but appealed for calm and said the government's thoughts were with the families of the two men who died.

Leeds chairman Peter Ridsdale said Uefa had decided to press ahead with the game after the alternatives have been ruled out.

Fans have been laying tributes at Elland Road

He said: "We had three options, one was for the match never to be played should we have decided to have pulled out of tonight's fixture and therefore withdrawn from the tournament.

"The other was to have rescheduled the game, but that would have led to an impossible situation through heightened tensions.

"The third was to go ahead and play the game. The Uefa view was that it should go ahead as planned and we accept that."

'Restraint'

Chief Superintendent Steve Matthews, of West Yorkshire Police, who is in Istanbul, urged Leeds supporters to show restraint and to remember that the Galatasaray fans inside the stadium were not responsible for their colleagues' deaths.

Galatasaray's fans are notoriously fervent

This is not the first time English fans have met a hostile reception in Istanbul, although it is by far the most violent incident.

In 1993 Manchester United fans ran into trouble when their side played Galatasaray in Istanbul.

More than 200 fans were arrested and many more were denied entry to the stadium.

Manchester United captain Roy Keane said the deaths of the two Leeds fans was "unbelievable".

Keane, who was in the squad in Turkey when the trouble flared in 1993, said: "You don't mind about the hostility inside the ground but people being injured or killed is unbelievable."