A violent half-time brawl between more than 100 fans marred West Ham United's friendly with Columbus Crew in Ohio yesterday.

The fights, which overshadowed West Ham's 3-1 win, began when a handful of the Premier League club's supporters entered the north-east corner of the stadium where the MLS team's most boisterous supporters were gathered.

Rival groups began directing chants toward each other and fights quickly broke out between more than 100 Crew fans and at least 30 West Ham supporters. The clashes were eventually stopped when Columbus police officers and Crew Stadium security staff moved in to separate the groups. Highway Patrol officers arrested one fan outside the stadium for disorderly conduct, but Columbus police were unable to confirm whether any arrests had been made inside the stadium.

It is the second incident Crew supporters have been involved in this season. In May, a fan was reported to have shouted a racial slur at Kheli Dube, the New England forward, after he scored a later winner at the ground. The incident prompted a league investigation, with Don Garber, the MLS commissioner, saying that the fan will be banned from league games for life if officials were able to identify him from a video that captured it.

Goals from Dean Ashton, Kyle Reid and an own goal from Brad Evans saw Alan Curbishley's side recover from going a goal behind to win the match. "It was a terrific game for us," Curbishley said. "We needed that sort of a workout. We took the MLS game because we wanted to come to America. We wanted to show people what we're about."