HAMBURG police today shot a man they say was armed with an “axe-like object” and a “Molotov cocktail” just hours before the city staged its first game of Euro 2024.

The German city’s police force said officers were threatened by the individual and, after he refused to drop the incendiary device, he was shot in his leg.

The incident took place near the city’s fan park in the St Pauli district around two-and-a-half hours before the Netherlands faced Poland at Hamburg’s Volksparkstadion.