The crowd disturbances ahead of Monday's Euro 2016 qualifier between Lithuania and England in Vilnius have led to UEFA charges against both countries.

Reports said that some England fans managed to buy tickets reserved for the home supporters in Vilnius and that fighting broke out as punches were traded by rival factions ahead of the game.

A police cordon had to be formed between the two sets of fans to maintain calm. This in turn displaced many fans, who then blocked stairways.

The Football Association and the Lithuanian Football Federation (LFF) have both been charged and will be judged by UEFA's control, ethics and disciplinary body on October 22.

Lithuanian police had said Tuesday they would be questioning the local football federation for failing to prevent England fans getting into the host's fan zone.

"Englishmen were able to buy tickets on the Internet for stands allotted to Lithuania fans. There were some conflicts," Vilnius police official Vytautas Grasys told reporters on Tuesday.

Grasys also said police arrested nine English fans for hooliganism in the Vilnius old town outside the stadium on Monday.

The LFF pinned the blame on England fans for buying tickets in a zone reserved for local fans.

"An internal investigation is underway. But we practically have no doubt that the main problem emerged because some football fans from England breached the rules and bought tickets from third persons rather than an official distributor," a spokesperson told AFP in an email response to an enquiry.