West Ham fan knocked down by sweeper and left with ‘life-threatening injuries’ before club’s European Cup match in Cologne

A West Ham fan has been seriously injured after being hit by a vehicle sweeping the road ahead of his club’s European Cup match tonight.

The 68-year-old man was knocked down at a traffic light near Cologne Cathedral.

Police said he had suffered “life-threatening injuries” and had been detained in hospital after last night’s crash.

It was reported that he may have fallen under the truck’s brushes and suffered head injuries.

The machine subsequently collided with a traffic light pole, leaving the driver injured.

Police said the West Ham fan’s condition had stabilized after being treated by doctors at the hospital where he remains today.

Today, investigators marked with chalk the place where the accident occurred last night at 9:20 p.m. and where his body lay under the vehicle.

A spokeswoman for the Cologne police said: “According to witnesses, the 68-year-old man crossed Trankgasse at the pedestrian traffic light at around 9:20 p.m., probably red.”

“The cleaning vehicle coming in the direction of Comedy Street hit him.

“Immediately after the collision, the 29-year-old driver suddenly crashed his sweeper into a traffic light pole. He also suffered minor injuries.

“The police deployed a traffic accident investigation team to obtain evidence and cordoned off a large area of ​​the accident site.”

Around 4,000 West Ham fans are believed to have headed to Germany, of whom only 1,750 had tickets for the first leg of their quarter-final against Bayer Leverkusen.

Hundreds of fans drank and sang into the early hours of the morning in bars around the cathedral guarded by police, but there were no reports of trouble.

Cologne police are also investigating the murder last night of a 50-year-old man who was stabbed to death.

The incident has not been linked to the fans.

It comes after a number of West Ham fans were banned from entering Bayer Leverkusen’s home ground for their Europa League tie to defuse potential crowd issues.

The move follows an operation involving UEFA, Bayer Leverkusen and the police to prevent a repeat of the violence that followed West Ham’s match against German side Eintracht Frankfurt in the same tournament two years ago.

There are also safety concerns for any West Ham fan who bypasses tight security measures and takes a spot among rival fans after a German fan was repeatedly punched by Arsenal fans at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday night.

The German had evaded the ban imposed on Bayern Munich fans after fireworks were thrown onto the pitch in a Champions League match against Italian side Lazio.

Leverkusen officials acted after security concerns were raised after hundreds of West Ham fans secured tickets from Bayer Leverkusen supporters for tomorrow night’s European Cup quarter-final first leg.

An investigation unearthed several hundred West Ham fans who had joined the Bayer Leverkusen club and were then able to purchase tickets from local fans.

They were identified by British addresses or emails linked to Internet providers and banned.

It was reported that Bayer would refund the 15-euro ticket prices, but it was unclear whether the 35-euro fans willing for mandatory ‘Bayer 04 Club’ membership would be refunded.

High-flying West Ham were allocated 1,790 seats for their supporters at the 30,000-capacity Bay Arena for the first leg of their round of 16 tie.