Violent crimes will be one of Wiltshire Police’s top priorities while Euro 2020 gets underway.

The rescheduled European football championship kicked off yesterday, with England playing its first game tomorrow against Croatia.

Superintendent Phil Staynings, who has been working for Wiltshire Police since he was 21, said: “We want people to enjoy the football, but the key message is that we need people to keep each other safe and follow the guidance in terms of the Covid restrictions.

“We’d like people to be responsible across the European Championship.

“There’s no place for violent crime in Wiltshire. And so from our perspective, we’ll be looking closely at our violent crime figures, or antisocial behaviour incidence, but also instances of hate crime which we take incredibly seriously across the county.”

Wiltshire Police is working closely with the council to ensure people are safe.

He added: “We’ve been working with licensing staff to identify premises of interest and areas of high footfall. So we’ve got a guest list of premises where we would probably want to be paying a visit during those particular games that will be of greatest interest.”