Security is tight in Volgograd as England arrived in the city on Sunday afternoon, ahead of their opening World Cup game against Tunisia on Monday.

There is a heightened police presence and military officers were seen scouring the area around the team hotel for improvised explosive devices.



A perimeter fence has been erected at the hotel where Gareth Southgate’s squad are staying for two nights, amid warnings that the city is a potential target for Islamist terrorists, and the England team bus was escorted to from the airport to their hotel in a police motorcade.

'I think it'll be all right': England fans begin arriving in Volgograd Read more

Despite the heightened security, and worries about the first encounter between English and Russian fans since the violent scenes in Marseille two years ago, fans arriving in Volgograd said their experiences so far had been overwhelmingly positive.

On a hot afternoon in the south-west Russian city, the violence of Marseille seemed a distant memory, as England fans joined locals and visiting Russians at the vast Motherland Calls monument that towers over the city.

“We’re going to be on our best behaviour here, and so far everyone has been really welcoming,” said David Graham, 38, who had arrived in Volgograd with three friends on Saturday and was touring the monument to the dead in the ruthless Battle of Stalingrad, the Soviet victory that was a key turning point in the second world war. “I think a lot of the idiots who might come out and try to cause trouble have been put off by the thought of ending up in a Russian jail.”

Other England fans said they had been worried about the potential reception from Russians but had felt nothing but positive vibes so far.

“We were out last night in this bar and it was incredible – everyone was singing and dancing, Russians were giving us vodka, everyone was trying to help out,” said Nigel Booth, , 55, from Huddersfield. At his fifth World Cup, he was present during the violence in Marseille and had been worried about what kind of reception might await in Russia.

“My family didn’t want me to come and I was quite wary. We were expecting resentment but it’s been absolutely brilliant,” he said.

Russian authorities have taken precautions in recent months to ensure that there is no repeat of the Marseille scenes during the World Cup in Russia, with groups of “ultra” fans told to stay at home and warned there will be hefty jail sentences if there is trouble at the tournament.

“There will be no trouble at all, we have organised everything perfectly and it’s in nobody’s interests to cause trouble,” said Vyacheslav, a 79-year-old Russian fan who had travelled from Moscow to see his first World Cup game since Spain 1982, when he had been part of a Soviet sports ministry delegation. “The atmosphere here and in Moscow is great, I hope all the England fans enjoy themselves.”

As the England fans mingle with Russians and a few Tunisians in Volgograd’s cafes and bars, local authorities have mounted a huge operation to ensure security at the game, with the southern venues of Volgograd and Rostov considered the most vulnerable to a potential terror attack.

The city has taken extraordinary security precautions during test football matches at Volgograd Arena, where England will play Tunisia. At the Russian Cup final between FC Tosno and Kursk Avangard in May, swaths of the city were shut down, streets blocked off and public transport cancelled. The degree of security is so extreme that the city declares match as days public holidays, because so many residents complained about problems getting to work.

England’s hotel, and that of their opponents Tunisia, is being closely guarded. Military officers with sniffer dogs scanned the surrounding area 24 hours before they arrived, while police lifted manhole covers to check for hidden devices.



At the England team hotel, visitors are subjected to full airport-style security checks by several guards on the door. All bags must go through a scanner and any phones or portable electronic devices are switched on to check they don’t pose a threat.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest England players Gary Cahill, Eric Dier and Kieran Trippier train on the eve of the group G match with Tunisia in Volgograd. Photograph: Dmitri Lovetsky/AP

“The main risk is probably from lone individuals or small groups, there have been no complex attacks, in the style of the organised attacks in Paris and Brussels, in Russia since 2012,” said Alex Kokcharov, an analyst for Jane’s Terrorism and Insurgency centre.

Volgograd has been a target for terrorism as one of the largest cities near Russia’s North Caucasus region, where Russia has fought two bloody wars and an insurgency since the 1990s. In 2013, twin suicide bombings at the Volgograd train station and on a local trolleybus killed 34. Russia later claimed to have killed the mastermind behind the bombing in Dagestan, a republic in Russia adjacent to Chechnya which has been a hotbed for Islamist fundamentalism.

Andrei Bocharov, the governor of Volgograd, told the Guardian last month that the government was taking “all steps necessary” to prevent a terrorist attack during the World Cup, including sharing information with British and other foreign intelligence agencies.