Expelled Russian fans taken to airport in France

Marseille : A group of 20 Russian football fans including far-right agitator Alexander Shprygin was driven from a holding centre to Nice airport to be flown back to Moscow on Saturday, an AFP photographer saw.

The group are being expelled from France after violent clashes with England fansbefore last weekend's Euro 2016 game between Russia and England in Marseille.

The supporters, ordered out of the country for disrupting public order, were being transported to the airport from the centre in Marseille in several vans.

French investigators believe the group includes violent and well-prepared hooligans, but it has proved impossible to bring specific charges despite police studying over 200 hours of video footage.

They were part of a group of 43 supporters detained by French police on Tuesday, including Shprygin, who is head of Russia's national supporters' association and an aide to nationalist lawmaker Igor Lebedev.

Three of the group were jailed for up to two years for their role in the street battles with English supporters in Marseille.

Thirty-five people were injured in the clashes, mostly English fans, including two who remain in a serious but stable condition in hospital.