Gascoigne held under Mental Health Act

By Mike Collett

LONDON (Reuters) - Former England midfielder Paul Gascoigne is being held under the Mental Health Act, a police source said on Thursday.

The former Tottenham Hotspur and Newcastle United player, widely known as Gazza, was arrested at the Hilton Hotel in Gateshead, on Wednesday evening.

Nobody was injured and there was no violence and no damage to the hotel.

"A 40-year-old man has been detained," a spokesman for Northumbria Police said.

"We had received a report of concern for a 40-year-old man staying at the hotel. The man was detained under the Mental Health Act."

Gascoigne's last direct involvement in football was as manager of minor League club Kettering Town, a job he left in 2005.

He was capped 57 times by England between 1988 and 1998 scoring 10 goals, and made international headlines during the 1990 World Cup finals in Italy.

Famously bursting into tears after receiving a yellow card in England's semi-final against West Germany, which would have seen him suspended for the final if England had qualified, he became a household name and "Gazzamania" was born.