Weather forces suspension of Ukraine France clash

The Ukraine v France Euro 2012 Group A match was suspended because of torrential rain here on Friday.

The Dutch referee Bjorn Kuipers ordered the teams off seven minutes into the game with a violent thunderstorm raging around them.

"The match has been temporarily suspended," announced the stadium announcer.

Kuipers stayed in the tunnel along with several UEFA officials to keep an eye on whether the weather improved or deteriorated and a decision on whether they can re-start the game will be taken at 1700 GMT.

Should the match be abandoned it will be played on Saturday.

Euro co-hosts Ukraine top the group after their opening 2-1 win over Sweden while France have a point after a 1-1 draw with England.

A violent thunderstorm at Euro 2008, co-hosted by Austria and Switzerland, in Vienna didn't affect the semi-final being played in Basel between Germany and Turkey but caused severe disruption to the broadcast images as the broadcasting centre was in the Austrian capital.