World Cup Scuffle: 500 Arrested [J. Mark English]

STUTTGART, Germany (AP) -- British and German police were helped by heavy rain that had most fans running for someplace dry after a weekend that saw hundreds of arrests.

Fears that the fan violence that gripped Stuttgart the previous day would be repeated on Sunday were erased by England's 1-0 win against Ecuador and the driving rain.

Police spokesman Olaf Petersen said nine fans were arrested for minor offenses on Sunday. That paled compared with Saturday when police arrested 400 English, as well as 14 Germans, following a clash between fans from the two countries.

All but three were released Sunday morning, in part because of a lack of detention space, police spokesman Stephan Keilbach said.

The fans were banned from the downtown area until Monday morning, though Keilbach said police would only know of violations if the fans caused more problems. All those arrested and released had been photographed, but Keilbach said it was impractical to hand out so many pictures to all the officers on patrol.

The arrests followed a clash with police earlier Saturday during which 122 English were arrested. Of those, 117 were being kept in custody until Monday.

In the free open-air viewing area Sunday, middle-aged couples and families with children -- some carrying the German flag -- mingled with fans clad in flags or walking around shirtless to bare patriotic tattoos.

"It's a party. We're here to have fun," whooped Kevin Penfold as he swapped his red England shirt for an Ecuadorean one worn by Ana Cecilia Pinos Flores, who struggled to put on her sweat-soaked acquisition.

Nearby, an English fan with his chest hairs dyed ginger and shaved in the shape of a cross grinned benignly in an alcoholic daze as his friends covered him in a flag. Others bellowed songs about downing German bombers in World War II.

Nearly 2,000 police officers patrolled this normally pristine southern city, a force boosted by hooligan experts from England. It was a model of cooperation that so far this World Cup has helped prevent widespread trouble.