More than 700 people on Saturday were detained across France, over 200 in Paris alone, after violent clashes erupted when thousands poured onto the streets after Paris Saint-Germain's Champions League final victory against English club Arsenal.
Police on Saturday detained 280 people in Paris after violent clashes erupted when thousands poured onto the streets during Paris Saint-Germain's Champions League final victory.
Some 22,000 police were deployed across France for the game, including 8,000 in Paris, after unrest marred PSG's win in the competition last year. Paris tram lines were halted, several metro stations shut and bus traffic halted in places in a bid to minimise disturbances.
According to the French interior ministry, 780 people were detained nationwide, including 283 who were apprehended in Paris. It was not immediately clear how many of these individuals were remanded in custody to face further investigation.
Police said a man in his twenties died in a motorbike crash in the capital. Another young man was seriously injured in a knife attack in Paris allegedly over a robbery, the prosecutor's office added.
'Unacceptable'
Interior minister Laurent Nunez said in a press briefing that 57 security forces were injured and that there had been "219 participants injured in France, including eight seriously".
He called the unrest "absolutely unacceptable."
Nunez said a small number of thefts and lootings had taken place in around fifteen cities across the country and incidents of violence were recorded in 71 municipalities. Six vehicles and two businesses were damaged.
A group of supporters also stormed the Paris ring road, the peripherique, bringing traffic to a halt for a time and letting off flares, a photographer from French news agency AFP said.
As fans celebrated the dramatic penalty shoot out victory in the Hungarian capital, Budapest, some 20,000 people converged on Paris's iconic Champs-Elysees avenue, police said.
Shops boarded up their windows ahead of the match to avoid a repeat of disturbances last year when youths ransacked shops on the Champs-Elysees and other streets.
Two dozen flares and about 100 fireworks were seized Saturday, while a bus shelter was destroyed near the Champs-Elysées.
The match also came on a hectic evening in Paris, with singer Aya Nakamura performing at the Stade de France national stadium, rapper Damso at the La Defense Arena and the French Open tennis in full swing.
Police said a bakery and a restaurant were damaged near PSG's Parc des Princes stadium, where tens of thousands gathered inside to watch the match but 4,000 to 5,000 people loitered outside with projectiles which were thrown at officers.
About 150 people "attempted to enter through one of the gates" at the stadium but police pushed them back, a police spokesperson said.
Some also attempted to erect a barricade with rental bikes which was cleared by police.
Victory parade on Sunday
An AFP reporter at the scene said clashes broke out between police and supporters near the stadium, and officers responded with tear gas when fireworks were thrown at them.
The scenes angered the French far right, with three-time presidential candidate Marine Le Pen writing on social media platform X that "only in France does a football club's victory spark riots."
"Only in France does everyone feel compelled to lock themselves in their homes on the evening of a victory to avoid being confronted with violence," she added.
Nunez said there was a "very robust, very solid system in place" to curb violence.
The PSG players will take part in a parade on Sunday afternoon on the Champs-de-Mars in front of the Eiffel Tower with some 100,000 people expected, before being received by President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace.
(with AFP)
