Champions League Final nightmare for Belfast man after being stabbed with a needle

A Northern Ireland man who was in Paris for the Champions League Final has spoken of the fear he felt after being attacked with a needle.

Brad Young's dream weekend in the French capital turned into a nightmare after he and his friends were targeted on the way out of the Stade de France.

The 24-year-old from Belfast, had won tickets to the final in a competition just days before the match after missing out in the ballot.

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Brad said: "We actually booked flights and accommodation as soon as the final got moved to Paris. We couldn't get tickets but were just going to go and watch it in the fan zone. I couldn't believe it when I won the competition and won tickets just four days before the final."

Brad and his friends travelled to Paris and said the atmosphere in the Liverpool fan zone was 'brilliant' before the match.

They managed to avoid some of the worst of the scenes outside the ground before the game, as thousands of Liverpool fans were forced into dangerously small areas before being targeted with pepper spray and tear gas by French police.

But it was after the match when the nightmare really began.

"It was a strange atmosphere inside the stadium, there were so many empty seats and then there were lots of locals suddenly coming in to our section, we didn't know what was going on," he added.

"When we left after the game it turned so sour so quickly. We walked into clouds of tear gas and the police were hitting fans who weren't moving, but they couldn't physically move."

Once out of the stadium, Brad said he became aware of large numbers of local people and gangs who were targeting Liverpool fans trying to make their way back to their hotels.

He said: "It felt like