Publican Sergio Quieros said nobody came to help

Customers were barricaded in for two hours as bottles, stones and bricks were hurled at the Red Lion pub in Thetford, Norfolk.

Publican Sergio Quieros said: "The police did nothing. Nobody came to help us. How could this happen?"

Norfolk Police said all those arrested after the trouble, 12 men and three women, had been released on bail.

"They knew that this would happen and they didn't come to prevent it," said Mr Quieros whose pub is almost a community centre for the town's growing Portuguese community of migrant workers.

I think the police did the best they could at the time but I have to say there is an underlying current - no community can stand the influx in such a short space of time that this town has Council leader Cliff Jordan

About 40 Portugal fans, including women and children, had to be locked in as a 300-strong mob laid siege to the pub.

They were finally led to safety by a police escort in the early hours of Friday morning, many with cuts and bruises.

Many people in the town apologised for the behaviour of fans but others said it was the result of tensions between the two communities.

Breckland District Council leader Cliff Jordan, though shocked by the ugly scenes, defended the police.

"I think the police did the best they could at the time but I have to say there is an underlying current - no community can stand the influx in such a short space of time that this town has."

Portuguese fans inside the pub were cut by flying glass

Police said they were taking the attack very seriously.

Inspector Mike Brown said it had been impossible to predict the trouble but there had been a "substantial police presence" in the town.

There are about 25,000 Portuguese nationals living in Norfolk.

Jorge Pascoal, who arrived in Thetford five years ago, says the two communities can live successfully side-by-side.

"There are a lot of good relationships. My son has more friends here than he has in Portugal.

"There are already girlfriends and boyfriends. We going to have a marriage soon - an English and Portuguese couple."