Gibraltar watches Euro 2024 final

Gibraltar came together to watch the UEFA European Football Championship (Euro) Final on Sunday evening.

The crowds cheered and gasped as England played Spain in the final held in Berlin, Germany.

But ultimately there was disappointment as Spain beat England 2 – 1 with just minutes left on the clock.

Around 1,000 people watched on a big screen in Casemates or from bars in Ocean Village, a Royal Gibraltar Police spokesman said.

The big screen was set up by the Ministry of Culture, in collaboration with Gibraltar Cultural Services and u-mee, with a live television feed.

The policing operation saw officers deployed from early afternoon, preparing for eventual temporary road closures/diversions and undertaking proactive engagement with licensed premises.

The spokesman added that Casemates Square had “a family atmosphere” in the public viewing area.

“The RGP were not required to intervene to deal with any instances of disorderly conduct or anti-social behaviour in any of our leisure areas or the frontier,” the RGP said.

“Temporary road closures and diversions around Waterport Roadway and frontier area were activated for a brief period of time when the match concluded, but business as usual was restored fairly quickly, with no incidents recorded at any of the locations in question.”

From an enforcement perspective, Response Team and Roads Policing Unit officers arrested four individuals for drink driving in the period following the final whistle.

The spokesman said this comprised of two individuals driving cars, one of which failed to provide a specimen of breath, one individual riding a motorcycle and one individual riding a PLET.

One of the car drivers was additionally arrested for the possession of Class A drugs.

RGP Superintendent Paul Chipolina thanked the officers for their work.

“My thanks to all RGP officers involved in the planning for [Sunday] evening’s operation, to those deployed across our leisure areas [on Sunday] afternoon and late into the evening, and to our community for engaging so positively with our officers during and after the event,” he said.