Paris prepared a hero’s welcome for Paris Saint-Germain’s players who won their second consecutive Champions League title with celebrations planned in the capital under tight security after a night of entertainment marred by riots.
Paris Saint-Germain beat Arsenal on Saturday night in the Hungarian capital, Budapest, 4-3 on penalties after a 1-1 draw after extra time.
Thousands of people partied across France overnight, but the parties were hit by incidents of clashes with police, theft, vandalism, a fatal road accident and hundreds of arrests, authorities said.
On Sunday morning municipal workers were busy clearing streets littered with debris from broken windows, damaged bus shelters, rubbish bins and burnt vehicles and overturned bicycles.
Authorities gave security assurances on Sunday ahead of a planned parade including the players on the Champs-de-Mars in front of the Eiffel Tower that was expected to draw tens of thousands of people.
Interior Minister Laurent Nunez promised “a strong law enforcement response” during the players’ return celebrations and fines for “traffic obstruction” in the event of any interference on the Paris ring road.
Paris authorities said around 6,000 police and gendarmes have been deployed for security during the celebrations, which would also see the PSG squad welcomed at the Elysee Palace by President Emmanuel Macron at around 6pm (1600 GMT) before being celebrated by their supporters at their Parc de Princes stadium.
ARRESTS
Nunez said at a news conference on Sunday that 780 people were arrested across the country during the overnight celebrations.
He highlighted an increase in the use of fireworks aimed at law enforcement and said 57 security forces were injured and that there were “219 injured participants in France, including eight seriously”.
The Paris public prosecutor’s office announced the death of a young man in his twenties after he crashed head-on into concrete blocks on an exit ramp at the Paris ring road on his motocross bike.
A group of supporters had attacked the ring, stopping traffic for a while and setting off flames, an AFP photographer said.
Another young man was seriously injured in a knife attack in Paris, suspected of a robbery, the prosecutor’s office added.
Nunez said that thefts and looting had occurred in about fifteen cities across the country and incidents of violence were recorded in 71 municipalities.
‘Zero gatherings’
The mayor of Paris’ 8th arrondissement – home to the famous Champs-Elysees where 20,000 people gathered after PSG’s victory – called for “zero rallies” on the iconic avenue as the only way to avoid further violence.
On Saturday night, “Avenue Champs-Elysees and its surroundings ceased to be a place of celebration and became an arena of urban guerilla warfare,” the city hall said in a statement.
“Since it has become impossible to celebrate a match without rioting, the only common sense response is a new doctrine: ‘zero gatherings’,” he urged.
Nunez dismissed the idea, saying it would “tie up almost half of the security deployment.”
The scenes angered the French far-right, with three-time presidential candidate Marine Le Pen writing in X that “only in France does the victory of a football club spark riots”.
