Police hold riot ferry football hooligans

to put back to Harwich, and in which a man disappeared overboard and is

presumed to have drowned, were high on drink and drugs.

Scores of police with dogs yesterday boarded the ship when it returned

to Harwich. About 150 people were taken off the ship to be questioned,

and she then resumed her voyage to Gothenburg in Sweden. Most of those

taken off the ship were sent to London by train under heavy police

escort, but eight were later charged with a variety of offences,

including criminal damage, and were released on bail.

The scale of the disorder on the Scandinavian Seaways vessel, its

participants intoxicated by supplies of the drug LSD and alcohol, was

described over the ship's radio to the Dutch Coast Guard by an off-duty

British policeman on board.

His message warned of ''positive danger'' to the crowded ship and its

856 passengers, and said the rioting was caused by ''certain elements of

the very worst of the 'professional' English soccer hooligans''. The

officer talked of heavy drinking and drug-taking, mainly of ''readily

available'' LSD, by more than 200 supporters heading for the

Sweden-England World Cup match and engaged in ''widespread incidents of

disorder''.

And he said the man lost overboard, 24-year-old Mr Robert Ayling, from

Plymouth, was under the influence of LSD when he panicked after a fire

extinguisher was let off and jumped overboard. He added: ''The sole

witness to this event was himself under the influence of LSD.''

As the Tor Britannia and its remaining passengers sailed again from

Harwich last night, its owners confirmed the football fans had caught

them out by booking individually. A spokesman said Scandinavian Seaways

had a long-standing policy of not carrying large groups of men, but in

this case ''there was no way of proving whether they were going to the

football match or not''.

The ferry, crowded with Scandinavian families and children, had set

out from Harwich at 5pm on Sunday with most of its passengers looking

forward to the usual happy, uneventful journey to Gothenburg. The

luxurious Tor and its sister ships, complete with swimming pool and

sauna for the long relaxing journey, are rarely bothered by England's

most unwanted export.

Heavy drinking was wrongly thought to have been ruled out by duty free

restrictions and high bar tariffs, but by 10pm, when Mr Ayling went

overboard, the rioting was at its height and the Tor Britannia had

become a battleground.

One Swedish passenger, Thomas Wellsden, from Malmo, was in the disco

when English passengers began singing and chanting football club

slogans. ''They were very noisy, but at first there was nothing

frightening. Then they started rocking the roulette wheel and

overturning chairs. A croupier asked them to get out and a bit of a

fight began.''

It was well into the morning, at 7.35, when the policeman's message to

the Dutch Coast Guard explained why the vessel was heading back to

Harwich and leaving the area of the search for the missing man. He said:

''There have been widespread incidents of public disorder since persons

have been drinking heavily and taking drugs, predominantly LSD, believed

to be readily available.

''As a result of this incident, tension has increased on board and

there is now positive danger to the vessel, crew and other passengers.''

The ferry operators said last night that they had not known football

fans were among the passengers joining the ship.