A brawl on the terrace of a restaurant in the west German city of Gelsenkirchen five hours before the tie left one police officer and a number of fans bloodied, although it was unclear who instigated the incident.
Video footage on social media brought back memories of previous shameful episodes for English football, with chairs, bottles and tables seen upended on the terrace of a restaurant where a large Serbian flag had been put up.
A spokesperson for the German police said that "the two fan groups had been separated" and "seven Serbian citizens were taken into custody during the clashes". They added: "There was also a complaint of grievous bodily harm. The background to this is still unclear."
Some witnesses had claimed Albanian fans had been the instigators but the Gelsenkirchen police later clarified that those involved were English and Serbian.
A UK football policing unit spokesperson said: "We are aware of an issue in Gelsenkirchen ahead of the England v Serbia match. Our German colleagues have made a number of arrests of what we currently believe to be Serbian supporters. At this stage we do not believe that any UK nationals have been arrested but inquiries are ongoing.
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