Italy soccer attack stokes fears of neo-fascist violence

A brutal attack on fans of English football club Tottenham Hotspur in Rome has stoked fears in Italy of rising right-wing and anti-Semitic violence.

Italy's capital has been rattled by increasing militancy by the extreme right since October, with weekly demonstrations by the neo-fascist youth group Blocco Studentesco often ending in clashes with police.

Local media initially blamed Thursday's attack on hard-core fans or 'ultras' supporting Lazio, who Tottenham had travelled to the capital to play in the Europa League.

But two supporters of AS Roma, Lazio's bitter city rivals, were among the 15 detained for alleged involvement in the mass attack on a downtown bar, suggesting a possibly different motivation.

Tottenham have a large contingent of Jewish fans and witnesses told Italian media that masked men armed with knives and baseball bats shouted "Jews, Jews" as they laid siege to a pub where the Tottenham supporters were drinking in a district popular with tourists in an old quarter of Rome.

Ten people were injured in the attack, which left 25-year-old English fan Ashley Mills in a serious condition. He underwent surgery for a severed artery in his leg on Friday and was being monitored by doctors, the Rome hospital where he is being treated said.

Lazio issued a statement on Thursday saying any suggestion that the assailants were Lazio supporters was "totally groundless".

Israeli ambassador to Italy Naor Gilon told reporters the attack on Spurs supporters, stemmed from "a new trend of anti-Semitism in Europe".

The World Jewish Congress called on Friday for Lazio to be suspended from European soccer if they failed to take action against hard core anti-Semitic supporters.

Media reports said Lazio fans chanted "Juden Tottenham, Juden Tottenham" at the match on Thursday.